Cashless transaction clearinghouse

ABSTRACT

A disclosed cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse includes a network interface allowing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse to communicate with a number of gaming properties and a processor configured to enable the validation of cashless instruments at a gaming property different from where the cashless instrument was generated. Methods are provided at the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse and at the gaming properties that enable cashless instrument transactions across multiple gaming properties including multi-site promotions. In addition, methods are provided at the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse that allow 1) a transfer of resources from an account at a first gaming property to an account or device at a second gaming property, 2) account information access, 3) generation of cashless transaction threads comprising a plurality of related cashless transaction, 4) awards and services based upon properties of a cashless transaction thread and 5) local resource accounts maintained at the clearinghouse.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of and claims priorityfrom U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/993,163 entitled “AN AWARDTICKET CLEARINGHOUSE”, filed Nov. 16, 2001; which is acontinuation-in-part of and claims priority from U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/648,382 entitled “AN AWARD TICKET CLEARINGHOUSE”, filed Aug.25, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,394,907 granted on May 28, 2002; whichclaims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from co-pending U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application No. 60/200,329, filed Apr. 28, 2000, naming Rick Roweas inventors, and titled “AN AWARD TICKET CLEARINGHOUSE,” each of whichis incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and for allpurposes. This application is also a continuation-in-part of and claimspriority from U.S. application Ser. No. 09/924,250, entitled “GAMEORIENTED PROMOTIONAL CARD,” filed Aug. 7, 2001, which is incorporatedherein by in its entirety and for all purposes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] This invention relates to game playing services for gamingmachines such as slot machines and video poker machines. Moreparticularly, the present invention relates to methods of utilizingcashless instruments on gaming machines.

[0003] There are a wide variety of associated devices that can beconnected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video pokermachine. Some examples of these devices are lights, ticket printers,card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors,display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of thesedevices are built into the gaming machine or components associated withthe gaming machine such as a top box which usually sits on top of thegaming machine.

[0004] Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gamingmachine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player toplay a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on thegaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usuallyrequires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gamingmachine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These stepsrequire the gaming machine to control input devices, including billvalidators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machineand recognize user inputs from devices, including key pads and buttonpads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play. After gameplay has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome,presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award ofsome type depending on the outcome of the game.

[0005] As technology in the gaming industry progresses, the traditionalmethod of dispensing coins or tokens as awards for winning game outcomesis being supplemented by ticket dispensers which print ticket vouchersthat may be exchanged for cash or accepted as credit of indicia in othergaming machines for additional game play. An award ticket system, whichallows award ticket vouchers to be dispensed and utilized by othergaming machines, increases the operational efficiency of maintaining agaming machine and simplifies the player pay out process. An example ofan award ticket system is the EZ pay ticket system by International GameTechnology of Reno, Nev. Award ticket systems and systems using othercashless mediums are referred to as cashless systems.

[0006] Cashless systems, such as the EZ pay ticket system, provideadvantages to both game players and casino operators. For example, manyplayers find it more convenient to carry an award ticket than a largenumber of coins. For gaming machine operators cashless systems tend toreduce gaming machine operating costs. For example, the infrastructureneeded to remove and count indicia of credit (e.g. coins, tokens, bills)from the gaming machine may be eliminated or minimized when it isreplaced with a cashless system, which reduces the gaming machineoperating costs. Further, coin dust, which is potentially damaging tothe components of the gaming machine (e.g. electronic components) may beeliminated or minimized when coin acceptors are replaced with thecashless system.

[0007] Currently, cashless systems have become very popular and havebeen embraced by customers. For example, ticket vouchers that aregenerated upon cashout and redeemed for cash or gaming machine creditswithin a particular casino are well accepted by game players. However,the ticket vouchers are only redeemable at the casino or the localproperty where the ticket was generated. Thus, the customer is notallowed to take the ticket voucher generated at one casino property andredeem the ticket voucher at another casino property. The limitedredemption capabilities of cashless systems, including ticket vouchers,may be undesirable to an entertainment corporation that owns multiplecasino properties. The entertainment corporation may desire that theircustomers have the ability to take a ticket voucher generated in oneproperty to any of the other properties owned by the entertainmentcorporation.

[0008] Also, multi-site cashless capabilities may be desirable for anarea or region such as the Las Vegas strip where a customer could cashout in casino A where a ticket voucher is generated. The customer couldthen take this ticket down the Las Vegas strip and into casino B whereit could be inserted into a gaming machine's bill acceptor and redeemedfor credit. In this example, casino A and casino B may or may not beowned by the same entertainment corporation. This type of multi-sitevalidation capability is not possible with current cashless systems.Thus, in view of the above, it would be desirable to provide apparatusand methods for cashless systems that allow a cashless medium, includingan award ticket voucher, generated at one site using one type ofcashless system to be validated at a second site using the same or adifferent cashless system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0009] This invention addresses the needs indicated above by providing acashless instrument transaction clearinghouse including a networkinterface allowing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse tocommunicate with a number of gaming properties and a processorconfigured to enable the validation of cashless instruments at a gamingproperty different from where the cashless instrument was generated.Methods are provided at the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse and at the gaming properties that enable cashlessinstrument transactions across multiple gaming properties includingmulti-site promotions. In addition, methods are provided at the cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse that allow 1) a transfer ofresources from an account at a first gaming property to an account ordevice at a second gaming property, 2) account information access, 3)generation of cashless transaction threads comprising a plurality ofrelated cashless transaction, 4) awards and services based uponproperties of a cashless transaction thread and 5) local resourceaccounts maintained at the clearinghouse.

[0010] One aspect of the present invention provides a cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse for facilitating the use ofcashless instruments across separate gaming properties, each of whichgenerates and validates cashless instruments. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse may be generally characterized as comprising:a) a network interface allowing the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse to communicate with each of the separate gamingproperties; and b) a processor configured or designed to (i) receivecashless instrument validation requests via the network interface from afirst property for a cashless instrument presented at the first propertywhere the cashless instrument was generated at a second property (ii)send information, via the network, to the second property requesting thesecond property to approve or reject the cashless instrument validationrequest, iii) validate cashless instrument storing a promotion. Acashless instrument validation request received at the clearinghouse maybe for validating an indicia of credit value to enable i) a wager on atable game, ii) a play of a keno game, iii) a play of a bingo game, iv)a wager on a sporting event, v) a wager on a game of chance played on agaming device located in a hotel room, vi) a wager on a game of chanceon a gaming machine, vii) a food purchase, viii) a service purchase, ix)a merchandise purchase, x) an entertainment event purchase, xi) a rentalpurchase and xii) combinations thereof. The cashless instrument may beselected from the group consisting of a smart cart card, a debit card, abar-coded ticket, a magnetic striped card and an EZ pay ticket voucher.

[0011] In particular embodiments, the cashless instrument storing thepromotion may be redeemable for one of game play credit, merchandise andcombinations thereof. Further, the cashless instrument storing thepromotion may be generated at a gaming machine at the first property andredeemed at the second property. The promotion may be offered accordingto one or more promotion theme parameters. A first promotion themeparameter may be related to game play on of a specific type of gamingmachine. The cashless instrument storing the promotion may onlyredeemable at a specific property connected to the cashless instrumentclearinghouse. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse mayfurther comprise a database for storing promotion theme parameters andpromotion statistics.

[0012] In other embodiments, the processor may be further designed orconfigured to generate a cashless transaction thread comprising aplurality of related cashless instrument transactions and provide thepromotion in response to properties of the cashless transaction threadmatching one or more promotion theme parameters. The promotion themeparameters are one or more of i) a threshold amount spent on game play,ii) a threshold amount spent on food purchases, iii) a threshold amountspent on merchandise purchases, iv) a threshold amount spent on servicepurchases, v) a threshold amount spent on rental purchases, vi) a randomselection of the cashless instrument thread, vii) a time, viii) a gamingproperty location, and ix) combinations thereof. The properties of thecashless instrument thread may be one or more of i) a total amount spenton game play for the cashless instrument transactions comprising thecashless instrument thread, ii) a total amount spent on food purchasesfor the cashless instrument transactions comprising the cashlessinstrument thread, iii) a total amount spent on merchandise purchasesfor the cashless instrument transactions comprising the cashlessinstrument thread, iv) a total amount on spent service purchases for thecashless instrument transactions comprising the cashless instrumentthread, v) a total amount spent on rental purchases for the cashlessinstrument transactions comprising the cashless instrument thread andvi) combinations thereof.

[0013] The cashless instrument transactions comprising the cashlessinstrument thread may be one of i) cashless instrument transactionsvalidated at the clearinghouse, ii) cashless instrument transactionsvalidated at one or more gaming properties in communication with theclearinghouse and iii) combinations thereof. The plurality cashlessinstrument transactions comprising the cashless transaction thread maybe related by one or more of the following a) a property where thecashless instrument transaction is generated, c) a time when thecashless instrument transaction is generated, d) a value of the cashlessinstrument transaction, f) a characteristic of a gaming device used inthe cashless instrument transaction, g) a type of game played on agaming machine used in the cashless instrument transaction, i) anindividual user, j) a group of individual users, k) a group ofproperties where the cashless instrument transactions are generated, l)a cashless instrument used in the cashless instrument transaction, m) agroup of cashless instruments used in the cashless instrumenttransaction and n) combinations thereof. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse may further comprise a transaction databaseincluding cashless transaction thread information.

[0014] In other embodiments, the generation of the promotion at theclearinghouse may comprise one of initiating i) a download ofpromotional credits, ii) an issuance of a comp, iii) an issuance of adiscount coupon, iv) an issuance of a cash award and v) combinationsthereof. The promotional credits may be non-cashable credits. Thepromotional credits, the comp, the discount coupon, the cash award andcombinations thereof may be stored on a first cashless instrumentgenerated at a cashless instrument generation site in communication withthe cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse or may be stored in auser account. The promotional credits, the comp, the discount coupon,the cash award and combinations thereof that stored on the firstcashless instrument or stored in the user account may be redeemable at aplurality of gaming properties. The clearinghouse may be capable ofreceiving cashless instrument validation requests for a validation ofthe promotional credits, the comp, the discount coupon, the cash awardand combinations thereof stored on the first cashless instrument orstored in the user account.

[0015] In yet another embodiment, the processor may be capable ofregulating access to the promotional credits stored on the firstcashless instrument or stored in the user account. The promotionalcredits may be regulated to limit one or more of more of the following:i) a total amount used over a period of time, ii) a total amount used ata particular gaming property, iii) a total amount used at a group ofgaming properties, iv) a use of the promotional credits on particulartype of gaming machine, v) a use to a particular group of gamingmachines, vi) a use of promotional credits only during certain timeperiods and vii) combinations thereof. The user account used for storingthe promotional credits may be maintained at the clearinghouse, on aremote server in communication with the clearinghouse or combinationsthereof.

[0016] Another aspect of the present invention provides a cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse for facilitating the use ofcashless instruments across separate gaming properties, each of whichgenerates and validates cashless instruments. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse may be generally characterized as comprising:a) a network interface allowing the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse to communicate with each of the separate gamingproperties; and b) a processor configured or designed to (i) receivecashless instrument validation requests via the network interface from afirst property for a cashless instrument presented at the first propertywhere the cashless instrument was generated at a second property (ii)send information, via the network, to the second property requesting thesecond property to approve or reject the cashless instrument validationrequest, iii) transfer an resource stored on a cashless instrument to anuser account accessible to a game player. A cashless instrumentvalidation request received at the clearinghouse may be for validatingan indicia of credit value to enable i) a wager on a table game, ii) aplay of a keno game, iii) a play of a bingo game, iv) a wager on asporting event, v) a wager on a game of chance played on a gaming devicelocated in a hotel room, vi) a wager on a game of chance on a gamingmachine, vii) a food purchase, viii) a service purchase, ix) amerchandise purchase, x) an entertainment event purchase, xi) a rentalpurchase and xii) combinations thereof. The cashless instrument may beselected from the group consisting of a smart cart card, a debit card, abar-coded ticket, a magnetic striped card and an EZ pay ticket voucher.

[0017] In particular embodiments, the processor may be furtherconfigured or designed to provide account information stored in one ormore different types of user accounts. The one or more different typesof user accounts may be selected from the group consisting a bankaccount, a credit card account, a debit card account, a casino accountand a loyalty program account and the account information for the one ormore different types of user accounts may be stored at i) theclearinghouse, ii) one more gaming properties, and iii) combinationsthereof. Further, the processor may communicate via the networkinterface with a plurality of remote devices each of the remote devicesmaintaining one or more different types of user accounts.

[0018] In other embodiments, the clearinghouse may further comprise anaccount database for storing account information in the user account fora plurality of different game players. The account information maycomprise i) an account number and ii) user identification information.The clearinghouse may further comprise a router where the routercontains routing information allowing the processor to determine agaming property location for the user account accessible to the gameplayer. The router may also contain routing information allowing theprocessor to send information to the gaming property location for theuser account accessible to the game player.

[0019] In yet other embodiments, the processor may be further designedor configured to enable the transfer of an resource stored on one of ai) first user account on a first server accessible to the game player,ii) a first gaming device or iii) a first cashless instrument to one ofa second gaming device, a second user account on a second serveraccessible to the game player or a second cashless instrument. The firstserver or the second server may be located at the clearinghouse. Thefirst gaming device or the second gaming device may be a gaming machine.The first user account or the second user account accessible to the gameplayer may be one of a bank account, a loyalty program account, a creditcard account, a debit card account and a casino account.

[0020] The resource may be one of an indicia of credit or points used ina loyalty program. Further, the processor may be designed or configuredto regulate access to the resource. Access to the resource may beregulated to limit one or more of more of the following: i) a totalamount of the resource used over a period of time, ii) a total amount ofthe resource used at a particular gaming property, iii) a total amountof the resource used at a group of gaming properties, and iv)combinations thereof.

[0021] Another aspect of the present invention is provides a method ofvalidating a cashless instrument storing a promotion at a first propertyusing a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse where the cashlessinstrument was generated at a second property. The method may begenerally characterized as comprising 1) receiving a first transactionvalidation request containing transaction information from the firstproperty wherein the first transaction validation request requestsvalidation of the cashless instrument storing the promotion; 2) sendinga second transaction validation request to the second property; 3)receiving a first transaction validation reply from the second property;and 4) sending a second transaction validation reply to the firstproperty where the second transaction validation reply containstransaction information indicating the validation of cashless instrumentstoring the promotion has been approved or has been rejected.

[0022] When validation of the cashless instrument storing the promotionis approved, the cashless instrument may be used to redeem one ofpromotional credits, a comp, a discount coupon, merchandise andcombinations thereof. The promotional credits may be non-cashablecredits. In a specific embodiment, the cashless instrument storing thepromotion may be only redeemable at a specific property. The cashlessinstrument may be selected from the group consisting of a smart cartcard, a debit card, a bar-coded ticket, a magnetic striped card and anEZ pay ticket voucher.

[0023] Another aspect of the invention pertains to computer programproducts including a machine-readable medium on which is stored programinstructions for implementing any of the methods described above. Any ofthe methods of this invention may be represented as program instructionsand/or data structures, databases, etc. that can be provided on suchcomputer readable media.

[0024] These and other features and advantages of the invention will bespelled out in more detail below with reference to the associateddrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0025]FIG. 1 is a perspective drawing of a gaming machine having a topbox and other devices.

[0026]FIG. 2A is a block diagram of the components of a cashless systemusing the EZ pay ticket voucher system.

[0027]FIG. 2B is a block diagram of the components of cashless systemfor one embodiment of the present invention.

[0028]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of cashless systems at multipleproperties connected to a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseserver.

[0029]FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram for a cashless instrumenttransaction between a clearinghouse, cashless servers, and cashlessgenerators/validators where the cashless instrument is generated at adifferent location from where it is validated.

[0030]FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a method of validating a cashlessinstrument transaction at a cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse.

[0031]FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting a method of validating anon-locally owned cashless instrument at a cashless transactionvalidation site local to the cashless server.

[0032]FIG. 7 is a flow chart depicting a method of validating a cashlessinstrument at a cashless transaction validation site non-local to thecashless server containing a record of the cashless instrument.

[0033]FIG. 8 is a screen shot of a graphical user interface used toanalyze cashless instrument transactions in accordance with thisinvention.

[0034]FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse server connected to a plurality of cashlesssites.

[0035]FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a generation of cashlessinstrument threads in a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseserver.

[0036]FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse server connected to cashless systems and otheraccount systems at multiple properties.

[0037]FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a method for providing an award usingthe cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse.

[0038]FIGS. 13A and 13B are flow charts of a method for transferringresources using the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse.

[0039]FIG. 14 is a simplified block diagram of a gaming machine andgaming network in which various embodiments of the present invention maybe implemented; and

[0040]FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating redemption of game-specificcredits according to a specific embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0041] Turning first to FIG. 1, a video gaming machine 200 of thepresent invention is shown. Machine 200 includes a main cabinet 204,which generally surrounds the machine interior (not shown) and isviewable by users. The main cabinet includes a main door 208 on thefront of the machine, which opens to provide access to the interior ofthe machine. Attached to the main door are player-input switches orbuttons 232, a coin acceptor 228, and a bill validator 230, a coin tray238, and a belly glass 251. Viewable through the main door is a videodisplay monitor 234 and an information panel 236. The display monitor234 will typically be a cathode ray tube, high resolution flat-panelLCD, or other conventional electronically controlled video monitor. Theinformation panel 236 may be a back-lit, silk screened glass panel withlettering to indicate general game information including, for example,the number of coins played. The bill validator 230, player-inputswitches 232, video display monitor 234, and information panel aredevices used to play a game on the game machine 202. The devices arecontrolled by circuitry (not shown) housed inside the main cabinet 204of the machine 200. Many possible games, including traditional slotgames, video slot games, video poker, and video keno, may be providedwith gaming machines of this invention.

[0042] The gaming machine 200 includes a top box 206, which sits on topof the main cabinet 204. The top box 206 houses a number of devices,which may be used to add features to a game being played on the gamingmachine 200, including speakers 210, 212, 214, a ticket printer 218which may print bar-coded tickets 220, a key pad 222 for entering playertracking information, a florescent display 216 for displaying playertracking information, a card reader 224 for entering a magnetic stripedcard containing player tracking information. Further, the top box 206may house different or additional devices than shown in FIG. 1. Forexample, the top box may contain a bonus wheel or a back-lit silkscreened panel which may be used to add bonus features to the game beingplayed on the gaming machine. During a game, these devices arecontrolled and powered, in part, by circuitry (not shown) housed withinthe main cabinet 204 of the machine 200.

[0043] Understand that gaming machine 200 is but one example from a widerange of gaming machine designs on which the present invention may beimplemented. For example, not all suitable gaining machines have topboxes or player tracking features. Further, some gaming machines havetwo or more game displays—mechanical and/or video. And, some gamingmachines are designed for bar tables and have displays that faceupwards. Still further, some machines may be designed entirely forcashless systems. Such machines may not include such features as billvalidators, coin acceptors and coin trays. Instead, they may have onlyticket readers, card readers and ticket dispensers. As another example,a game may be generated in on a host computer and may be displayed on aremote terminal or a remote gaming device. The remote gaming device maybe connected to the host computer via a network of some type such as alocal area network, a wide area network, an intranet or the Internet.The remote gaming device may be a portable gaming device such as but notlimited to a cell phone, a personal digital assistant, and a wirelessgame player. Images rendered from 3-D gaming environments may bedisplayed on portable gaming devices that are used to play a game ofchance. Further a gaming machine or server may include gaming logic forcommanding a remote gaming device to render an image from a virtualcamera in a 3-D gaming environments stored on the remote gaming deviceand to display the rendered image on a display located on the remotegaming device. Thus, those of skill in the art will understand that thepresent invention, as described below, can be deployed on most anygaming machine now available or hereafter developed.

[0044] Returning to the example of FIG. 1, when a user wishes to playthe gaming machine 200, he or she inserts cash through the coin acceptor228 or bill validator 230. In addition, the player may use a cashlessinstrument of some type to register credits on the gaming machine 200.For example, the bill validator 230 may accept a printed ticket voucher,including 220, as an indicia of credit. As another example, the cardreader 224 may accept a debit card or a smart card containing cash orcredit information that may be used to register credits on the gamingmachine. Typically, the information contained on the cashlessinstrument, including the ticket voucher, smart card or debit card, isvalidated by a cashless system. The cashless instrument, including theticket voucher, smart card or debit card, may have been generated at thesame property, for example a first casino where the gaming machine 200is located or the ticket may have been generated at another property forexample a second casino. Details of the components of a cashless systemand validation methods used in a preferred embodiment of a cashlesssystem are described with reference to FIGS. 2-7.

[0045] The cashless instrument typically contains information used toregister credits on the gaming machine, including gaming machine 200,and validate the registration transaction. For example, when a ticketvoucher is used as a cashless instrument, the printed ticket voucher maycontain information including: 1) a ticket value, 2) a ticket issuedate, 3) a ticket issue time, 4) a ticket transaction number, 5) amachine ID, 6) a ticket issue location and 7) a ticket owner.Information such as the ticket value, the ticket issue date, the ticketissue time, the ticket number and the machine ID may be common tocashless systems that generate and validate tickets issued at a singleproperty. However, information such as the ticket issue location and theticket owner may be needed to allow multi-site generation and validationof cashless instruments. In addition, other types of information,besides the information listed above, may be stored on the cashlessinstrument. For example, the ticket may contain information regarding apromotional prize that may be won by the player when the ticket voucheris utilized in the gaming machine 200. The promotional prize may involvemultiple properties and particular types of gaming machines.

[0046] The information on the cashless instrument may be recorded on thecashless instrument when the cashless instrument is generated. Forexample, in the case of the ticket voucher, the generation of the ticketvoucher may refer to the actual printing of the ticket voucher on paperor some other medium. A unique bar-code may be printed on the ticketvoucher which may be read with a bar-code scanner to obtain informationfrom the ticket. The ticket voucher, including 220, may be printed froma printer, including printer 218. In the case of the smart card or debitcard, the generation of the smart card or debit card refers to storingor encoding this information on the smart card or debit card. Thegeneration of the debit card or smart card may occur when the smart cardor debit card is inserted into the card reader 224 in the gaming machine200 or at another site where smart cards or debit cards are issued. Forexample, smart cards or debit cards may be generated at ATM liketerminals, at a cashier station when a player cashes out or prepaidsmart cards or debits may be purchased within the gaming property (e.g.casino).

[0047] During the course of a game, a player may be required to make anumber of decisions, which affect the outcome of the game. For example,a player may vary his or her wager on a particular game, select a prizefor a particular game, or make game decisions which affect the outcomeof a particular game. The player may make these choices using theplayer-input switches 232, the video display screen 234 or using someother device which enables a player to input information into the gamingmachine. During certain game events, the gaming machine 200 may displayvisual and auditory effects that can be perceived by the player. Theseeffects add to the excitement of a game, which makes a player morelikely to continue playing. Auditory effects include various sounds thatare projected by the speakers 210, 212, 214. Visual effects includeflashing lights, strobing lights or other patterns displayed from lightson the gaming machine 200 or from lights behind the belly glass 240.

[0048] After the player has completed a game, a cashless instrument maybe generated at the gaming machine 200. The cashless instrument may be aprinted ticket voucher, a smart card, debit card or other cashlessmedium. For example, the player may decide to cashout and may receivethe ticket 220 from the printer 218, which may be used for further gamesor to redeem a prize. Further, the player may receive a ticket 220 forfood, merchandise, game services or other promotions from the printer218 that may be used at the gaming property where the gaming machine islocated or at other gaming properties. The player may view cashlessinstrument transaction information on the video display screen 234 orthe florescent screen 216. For instance, when a player cashes out fromthe gaming machine, the value stored on the cashless instrument may bedisplayed using the video display 234. As another example, when apromotion ticket 220 is printed out from the printer 218 that is validat a number of other gaming properties, a map may be displayed on thevideo display screen indicating where the other gaming properties arelocated.

[0049]FIG. 2A is a block diagram of the components of a cashless systemusing the EZ pay ticket voucher system for one embodiment of the presentinvention. A cashless system is the hardware components and softwarecomponents needed to generate and validate cashless instruments.Components of an cashless system may include 1) data acquisitionhardware, 2) data storage hardware, 3) cashless instrument generationand validation hardware (e.g. printers, card readers, ticket acceptors,validation terminals, etc.), 3) auditing software, 4) cashlessinstrument validation software and 5) database software. Many types ofcashless systems are possible and are not limited to the componentslisted above or embodiments such as the EZ pay ticket voucher system.Typically, a cashless system is installed at each property utilizingcashless instruments. To allow multi-site validations of cashlessinstruments, the cashless systems at each property are linked to acashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. The relation of multiplecashless systems connected to a cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse are described with reference to FIG. 3. The details of acashless system at one property are described below with reference toFIGS. 2A and 2B.

[0050] Returning to FIG. 2A, a first group of gaming machines, 65, 66,67, 68, and 69 is shown connected to a first clerk validation terminal(CVT) 60 and a second group of gaming machines, 75, 76, 77, 78 and 79 isshown connected to a second CVT 70. These gaming machines and theirassociated cashless hardware are referred to as the block, gamingmachines 80 in the figure. All of the gaming machines print ticketvouchers which may be exchanged for cash or accepted as credit ofindicia in other gaming machine located within the property 5. In thisexample, the ticket voucher serves as a cashless instrument. Inaddition, the gaming machines may accept ticket vouchers issued at adifferent property from property 5 where the different property utilizesthe same or a different cashless system as compared to property 5.

[0051] When the CVTs are not connected to one another, a ticket voucherprinted from one gaming machine may be only be used as indicia of creditin another gaming machine which is in a group of gaming machinesconnected to the same clerk validation terminal. For example, a ticketvoucher printed from gaming machine 65 might be used as credit ofindicia in gaming machines 66, 67, 68 and 69, which are each connectedto the CVT 60, but not in gaming machines 75, 76, 77, 78, and 79, whichare each connected to the CVT 70. In an analogous manner, when thecashless systems from one property are not connected together then aticket vouchers generated from gaming machine 66 may be not be used atproperty different from property 5.

[0052] The CVTs, 60 and 70, store cashless instrument transactioninformation corresponding to the outstanding cashless instrument,including ticket vouchers, smart cards and debit cards, that are waitingfor redemption. In this embodiment, the CVTs are separate from thegaming machine. However, the cashless instrument information may be alsobe stored within each gaming machine or one gaming machine mayfunctionally act as a CVT for a group of gaming machines eliminating theseparate CVT hardware. In addition, cashless instrument transactioninformation may be stored in a cashless server including the EZ payserver 10. The cashless instrument transaction information may be usedwhen the tickets are validated and cashed out or redeemed in some othermanner. The CVTs 60 and 70 may store the information for the ticketvouchers printed by the gaming machines connected to the CVT. Forexample, CVT 60 stores ticket voucher information for ticket vouchersprinted by gaming machines 65, 66, 67, 68, and 69. When a ticket isprinted out, ticket information is sent to the CVT using a communicationprotocol of some type from the gaming machine. For example, the gamingmachine may send transaction information to the CVT which is part of thecashless system using the slot data system manufactured by Bally'sGaming Systems (Alliance Gaming Corporation, Las Vegas, Nev.) or theslot acquisition system manufacture by IGT, Reno, Nev.

[0053] In this embodiment, when a player wishes to cash out a ticket,the player may redeem vouchers printed from a particular gaming machineat the CVT associated with the gaming machine or any other CVT which ispart of the cashless system associated with the CVT. For example, sinceCVT 60 and CVT 70 are connected as part of a single cashless system tothe EZ pay server 10, a player may redeem vouchers or utilize vouchersat the gaming machines, the CVT's (60 or 70), the cashiers (25, 30, 35,and 40) or the wireless cashiers 58. The CVTs, cashiers, wirelesscashiers and gaming machines may be referred to as “cashless validationsites.” To cash out the ticket voucher, the ticket voucher is validatedby comparing information obtained from the ticket with informationstored within the CVT. After a ticket voucher has been cashed out, theCVT marks the ticket paid in a database to prevent a ticket voucher withsimilar information from being cashed multiple times.

[0054] Not all cashless systems may utilize CVTs, many of the functionsof the CVT may be transferred to the cashless server, including the EZpay server 10, eliminating the function within the CVT. For instance,the cashless instrument transaction information may be stored in thecashless server instead of the CVT. Thus, the need to store cashlessinstrument transaction information within the CVT may be eliminated.

[0055] In this embodiment using the EZ pay system, multiple groups ofgaming machines connected to CVTs are connected together in a crossvalidation network 45. The cross validation network is typicallycomprised of one or more concentrators 55 which accepts inputs from twoor more CVTs and enables communications to and from the two or more CVTsusing one communication line. The concentrator is connected to a frontend controller 50 which may poll the CVTs for ticket voucherinformation. The front end controller is connected to an EZ pay server10 which may provide a variety of information services for the awardticket system including accounting 20 and administration 15.

[0056] In this invention, one hardware and software platform allowingcashless instruments to be utilized at all of the cashless validationsites (e.g. cashier stations, gaming machines, wireless cashiers andCVTs) within a single property and across multiple properties isreferred to as a “cashless server”. In this embodiment, the EZ payserver 10 may function as the cashless server. Usually, the cashlessserver is a communication nexus in the cross validation network. Forinstance, the EZ pay server 10 is connected to the cashiers, wirelessdevices, remote cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse, CVTs andthe gaming machines via the CVTs.

[0057] The cross validation network allows ticket vouchers generated byany gaming machine connected to the cross validation to be accepted byother gaming machines in the cross validation network 45. Additionally,the cross validation network allows a cashier at a cashier station 25,30, and 35 to validate any ticket voucher generated from a gamingmachine within the cross validation network 45. To cash out a ticketvoucher, a player may present a ticket voucher at one of the cashierstations 25, 30, and 35 or to a game service representative carrying awireless gaming device for validating ticket vouchers. A more completediscussion of the details of the wireless gaming device 58, includinghardware and utilization, are described in copending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/544,844 entitled a WIRELESS GAME ENVIRONMENTfiled Apr. 7, 2000 by Rowe the entire specification of which isincorporated herein by reference. Information obtained from the ticketvoucher is used to validate the ticket by comparing information on theticket with information stored on one of the CVTs connected to the crossvalidation network. In addition, when the ticket voucher was issued atanother property, the information on the ticket may be stored at theother property. Thus, to validate the ticket voucher, the EZ pay servermay have to communicate with the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse via the remote connection 11 to obtain the informationnecessary to validate the ticket voucher.

[0058] As tickets are validated, this information may be sent to auditservices computer 40 providing audit services, the accounting computer20 providing accounting services or the administration computer 15providing administration services. In another embodiment, all of theseservices may be provided by the cashless server including the EZ payserver 10. Examples of auditing services, which may be provided bycashless system software residing on the auditing computer 40 include 1)session reconciliation reports, 2) soft count reports, 3) soft countverification reports, 4) soft count exception reports, 5) machine ticketstatus reports and 5) security access report. Examples of accountingservices, which may be provided by cashless system software residing onthe accounting computer 20 include, 1) ticket issuance reports, 2)ticket liability reports, expired ticket reports, 3) expired ticket paidreports and 4) ticket redemption reports. Examples of administrationservices, which may be provided by cashless system software residing onthe administration computer 15 include 1) manual ticket receipt, 2)manual ticket report, 3) ticket validation report, 4) interim validationreport, 5) validation window closer report, 6) voided ticket receipt and7) voided ticket report.

[0059]FIG. 2B is a block diagram of the components of cashless systemfor one embodiment of the present invention. The cashless systemincludes a cashless server 95, such as the EZpay server 10 describedwith respect to FIG. 2A. In this embodiment, the cashless server 95 isconnected to gaming machines 80 (described with respect to FIG. 2A),table games (e.g., 81 and 82), a keno server 89, a sports book server88, a bingo server (not shown) and a casino kiosk 90. The table gamesmay be one of any table games found in a casino, such as but not limitedto, poker, black jack, craps, roulette, baccarat, pai-gow poker and dicegames.

[0060] Many different cashless system architectures are possible withthe present invention and the system is not limited to the example inFIG. 2B. For instance, cashless server 95 may be connected to just thekeno server 89 and the gaming machines 80 and not the sports book server88 and the table games. As another example, the cashless server 95 maybe connected to additional gaming devices and servers not shown in thefigure.

[0061] The keno server 89 may provide keno games and keno tickets aspart of keno system. The keno server 89 may be connected to a pluralityof gaming devices used to issue and redeem keno tickets. The bingoserver may provide bingo games as part of a bingo system and may beconnected to a plurality of gaming devices that provide bingo games. Thesports book may be used to provide sports wagering as part of a sportswagering system. The sports book may be connected to a plurality ofgaming devices used to issue and redeem sports wager tickets. In thepast, the keno system, the bingo system and the sports wagering systemhave been operated as independent systems. Further, these systemstypically only take cash only and casino chips may not be used to makesports wagers or for keno game play.

[0062] Traditionally, the keno system, the sports wagering system, thebingo system, the table games have not been operated with a cashlesssystem as has been described in regards to the gaming machines 80 inFIG. 2A. In one embodiment of the present invention, all of thesesystems are connected to a cashless system, such as via the cashlessserver 95. Thus, cashless instruments with a cash value or a promotionalcredits (non-restricted or restricted) may be generated and validatedfor game play at the game machines, table games (i.e., table games andassociated hardware), the keno system (keno server and associatedhardware), the sports wagering system (sports book server and associatedhardware) and the bingo system (bingo server and associated hardware)and used interchangeably between these venues.

[0063] As an example of interchangeability between the venues, a playermay cashout at one of the gaming machine in the gaming machines 80 andreceive a cashless instrument with the cash value. The player may thenpresent the cashless instrument with the cash value at one of the tablegames 81 and 82. Using one of the cashless interface devices 83 and 84,the cashless instrument may be validated at the cashless server 95. Forinstance, the cashless server may contact the CVT connected to a gamingmachine described in FIG. 2A where the cashless instrument was generatedto validate the cashless instrument.

[0064] After validation of the cashless instrument, the cash value onthe cashless instrument or a portion of the cash value may be applied togame play. For example, at a black jack game, a roulette game or a crapsgame, the portion of the cash value used for game play may be exchangedfor casino chips or another type of indicia of credit used to play thegame. After a player has completed a table game, the player may cash outand a second cashless instrument with a cash value, such as printedticket voucher, may be generated by one of the cashless interfacedevices, 83 or 84. Further, when the player cashes out, an additionalcashless instrument, with restricted or non-restricted promotionalcredits that may be used for game play, may be generated by one of thecashless interface devices 84 or 84.

[0065] An advantage of this approach is that the player may findcarrying a single cashless instrument more desirable then carrying ahandful of casino chips. Further, as will be described below, thecashless instrument may have more utility in that it can be used in morelocations and for more activities then the casino chips, which may bedesirable to the player. In addition, a handful of casino chips may bemore easily lost and harder to keep track of then a cashless instrument,which may make cashless instruments more desirable to the player.

[0066] With a cashless system as described, it is easier track whereplayer resources are being utilized and accounting procedures may besimplified which is a benefit to gaming operators such as casinos. Inone embodiment, the casino chips may be primarily used for game play atthe gaming tables and players will be encouraged to leave their chips atthe table and leave only with a cashless instrument. To encourage thistype of behavior, random promotions at cash out of the chips for acashless instrument may be offered, such as promotional credits. Thisapproach may be desirable for casinos because it may reduce the overheadassociated with 1) auditing procedures that they are required toimplement by law in regards to the use of casino chips, 2) restockingtables with casino chips, 3) cashing out casino chips and 4) theacceptance of competitors casino chips. These processes require a lot ofmanual labor and provide many theft opportunities. With a cashlesssystem, many of the processes can be automated and many theftopportunities eliminated which is desirable to casinos.

[0067] For example, when a cashless instrument generated at a firstcasino is presented at a second casino for the play of a table game atthe second casino, an cashless transaction clearinghouse may be used(see description below) to validate the cashless instrument andautomatically send an electronic fund transfer to the first casino. Incontrast, to use a casino chip from a first casino at the second casino,many manual processing tasks are required. For instance, the chip isstored in a container at the table game, taken to a back room. In theback room, the chip is identified and then a request for a reimbursementis manually generated and then sent from the first casino to the secondcasino.

[0068] The cashless interface devices 83 and 84 may comprise componentsused to generate and to redeem cashless instruments at a gaming machine.For example, the cashless interface devices may comprise one or more ofthe following gaming devices, a bill validator that may be used to readtickets, a bar-code scanner, a card reader for reading magnetic stripedcards or smart cards, a key pad, a touch screen interface, a printer, astorage tray for blank tickets, a logic device (e.g., a microprocessoror microcontroller), a power supply, an RFID tag reader, a storage trayfor validated tickets and a wired or wireless communication interfacefor communicating with devices such as a concentrator 85, communicatingdirectly with the cashless server 95 or communicating with a playertracking/accounting server. The one or more gaming devices in thecashless interface devices 83 and 84 may be mounted in a housing.

[0069] Returning to FIG. 2B, after the second cashless instrument isgenerated by one of the cashless interface devices at the table games,the player may take the cashless instrument to a keno station connectedto the keno server 89 and use the cash value on the instrument or aportion of the cash value to play a keno game. For example, if the cashvalue on the second instrument is $100 dollars, after the cashlessinstrument is validated, a player may purchase $50 worth of keno ticketsand receive $50 cash payout for the remaining value of the ticket. Inone embodiment, a casino service person carrying a hand-held wirelessdevice may validate the second cashless instrument with the hand-helddevice and exchange it for keno tickets and cash for any remaining cashvalue on the instrument. Details of using a hand-held wireless devicefor redeeming cashless instruments are described in co-pending U.S.application Ser. No. 09/544,884 previously incorporated herein. Thehand-held wireless device may also communicate with the keno server 89to indicate that keno tickets have been issued to the player.

[0070] In another embodiment, the player may purchase keno tickets at akeno station connected to the keno server 89. The player may present thesecond cashless instrument at the station. Information stored on thesecond cashless instrument may be read into the keno system and sent tothe keno server 89. The keno server 89 tracks all of the money goinginto and out of the keno system. Therefore, when a cashless instrumentis validated to play keno, information regarding the portion of the cashvalue used for keno may be processed and stored by the keno server 89.

[0071] The keno server 89 may also receive validation information storedon the cashless instrument. The keno server 89 may send the cashlessserver 95 a validation request message requesting the validation of thesecond cashless instrument. The validation request message may includevalidation information from the second cashless instrument needed by thecashless server 95 to validate the second cashless instrument. Further,the validation request message may include any additional informationrequired for the keno server 89 and the cashless server to communicatein a secure manner 95. Details of secure communication are described inmore detail in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 09/993,163previously incorporated herein.

[0072] In response to the validation request message, the cashlessserver 95 attempts to validate the second cashless instrument and maygenerate a reply message indicating an approval or rejection of thevalidation of the second cashless instrument. When the validation of thesecond cashless instrument has been approved, the keno server 95 maysend a message to the keno station indicating the validation of thesecond cashless instrument has been approved. After the second cashlessinstrument has been exchanged for keno game play and for cash (if thereis any remaining cash value not used for keno game play), the kenostation may send a message to the keno server indicating the cashlesstransaction has been completed. The keno server 89 may store a record ofthe transaction and send a message to the cashless server 95 indicatingthe transaction has been completed.

[0073] After keno game play, the player may have a number of winningtickets from the keno game. In one embodiment, these tickets may betaken to a keno station and cashed out. The keno server 89 may becontacted to determine the winning keno tickets and validate the winningkeno tickets. When the tickets are cashed out, a third cashlessinstrument may be generated with a cash value won from the keno gameplay. The keno server 89 may generate a message and send it to thecashless server to indicate a new cashless instrument has beengenerated. The message may include validation information that is storedon the cashless server and the newly generated cashless instrument. Thevalidation information is compared with information read from the newlygenerated cashless instrument when it is later presented for validationat a validation site.

[0074] In one embodiment, prior to generation of the cashlessinstrument, a generation request message may be sent the cashless server95 by the keno server to request a generation of a new cashlessinstrument. When a request is received by the cashless server 95 togenerate a new cashless instrument from the keno server 89, the cashlessserver 95 may generate a reply message including validation informationthat may be stored on the cashless instrument that is to be generated,such as a unique serial number. The unique serial number may be storedon the new cashless instrument and stored on the cashless server 95.When a validation request for the newly generated cashless instrument islater received by the cashless server 95, the validation information,such as the unique serial number generated and stored on the cashlessserver 95, may be used for validation purposes.

[0075] A third cashless instrument generated as a result of a win atkeno play may be taken by the player and presented at a sports bookstation connected to the sports book server 88. A portion or all of thecash value stored on the third cashless instrument may be used to make asports wager. The sports book server 88 may process the third cashlessinstrument like the keno server 89, i.e., sending a validation requestmessage to the cashless server, etc. If the sports wager is a win, afourth cashless instrument may be generated and processed by the sportsbook server 88 like the keno server 88. The fourth cashless instrument,as well as the first, second and third cashless instruments previouslydescribed, may also be used to make sports wagers, play table games,play gaming machines, play bingo, play keno and any other games that areoffered at a casino and the present invention is not limited to thesequence of game play described in the example above.

[0076] The cashless server 95 may include a keno interface 87 forcommunicating with the keno server 89 and a sports book interface 86 forcommunicating with the sports book. Additional interfaces may beprovided for any other independent gaming systems, such as bingo, thatcommunicate with the cashless server 95. The keno server 89 and sportsbook server 88 may also include a cashless system interface (not shown)that allows them to communicate with their corresponding interface onthe cashless server 95. The interfaces may be defined by applicationprogram interfaces (API's). The API's may describe information,information formats and commands that may be exchanged by the servers.

[0077] In some embodiments of the present invention, it may beadvantageous to provide a casino kiosk 90 where cashless instruments maybe validated and utilized. The casino kiosk may be an automated menudriven system like an automatic teller machine. For example, in oneembodiment at a casino kiosk, a player may be able to validate acashless instrument and obtain keno tickets or a make a wager. Thecasino kiosk may be connected to the keno server 89, the sports bookserver 88 and the cashless server 95 to facilitate these transactions.

[0078] In another embodiment, the player may wish to partially cash acashless instrument or transfer a portion of the cashless instrument toa remote account (see FIG. 11). In this case, the cashless instrumentmay be validated, the player may specify a cash amount they wish toreceive and may receive cash for the specified amount (or transfer it anaccount) and receive a new cashless instrument with the remaining amountnot cashed. In yet another embodiment, a player may wish to add cash toa cashless instrument. In this case, the player may input a cashlessinstrument into the casino kiosk 90 and input additional funds, such ascash or a transfer from another account, then a new cashless instrumentwith the added finds may be generated and issued to the player. In afurther embodiment, a player may wish to combine a plurality of cashlessinstrument into a single cashless instrument. In this embodiment, theplayer may present a plurality of cashless instrument to the kiosk 90.The value of the cashless instrument may be added together and a singlecashless instrument with the combined value may be generated andpresented to the player.

[0079] In a particular embodiment, at the casino kiosk 90, a player maybe provided transaction opportunities that allow a non-restrictedcashless instrument to be converted to a restricted cashless instrument.A non-restricted cashless instrument is non-restricted in that the cashvalue stored on the cashless instrument may be redeemed for cash or usedfor game play in an unrestricted manner. For a restricted cashlessinstrument, the use of a cash value stored on the cashless instrument isrestricted in some manner. For example, for a restricted cashlessinstrument, the cash value may only be spent during certain time periods(e.g., period during the day, the week, holiday periods, etc.), atcertain locations (e.g., a particular gaming property or groups ofgaming property), on certain games (e.g., a particular game of chanceimplemented on a gaming machine), for certain activities (e.g., keno, atype of table game). Of course combinations of restrictions may be usedand the restrictions are not limited to only these examples, which areprovided for illustrative purposes only.

[0080] The gaming operator may provide incentives to entice players toconvert a non-restricted cashless instrument to a restricted cashlessinstrument or to purchase a restricted cashless instrument. As anexample, the casino may offer to add value to a non-restricted cashlessinstrument to convert it to a restricted cashless instrument. Toillustrate, the casino may offer to add two dollars to the cash value ofa non-restricted cashless instrument with a six dollar value if it isconverted to a restricted cashless instrument that may be used for gameplay only (for the game play only restriction, the credits may no longerbe redeemed for cash but may only be used to play games). Alternately, aplayer may be able to purchase cashless instrument with an eight dollarvalue that is restricted to game play only for six dollars.

[0081] In another example, the casino may offer to increase the playertracking points accumulated using a cashless instrument when it isconverted from a non-restricted cashless instrument to a restrictedcashless instrument. In one embodiment, these types of incentives may beawarded as a “comp” in a loyalty program, such as a player trackingprogram. The embodiments described in regards to the casino kiosk 90 arenot limited to the casino kiosk. For instance, opportunities to converta non-restricted cashless instrument to a restricted cashless instrumentmay be provided at a gaming machine, at the cashless interface devicesor other devices in the cashless system.

[0082] The ability to use cashless instruments at a plurality ofdifferent locations within a gaming establishment at a casino, such asat the table games, gaming machines, sports book and keno parlor, usinga common cashless system may be extended to a plurality of gamingproperties. For instance, a cashless instrument issued at a gamingmachine at first gaming establishment may be used to play keno at asecond gaming establishment. Details of a cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse that allow these transactions between multipleproperties is described as follows.

[0083]FIG. 3 is a block diagram of cashless systems at multiple gamingproperties connected to a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseserver. At property 5 (described with reference to FIGS. 2A and 2B),property 104 and property 118, three different embodiments of cashlesssystems are shown. At property 104, gaming machines 175, 176, 177, 178,179 send information to the clerk validation terminal 170. The CVT 170sends information to the cashless server and data acquisition system100. In this embodiment, the functions of the controller 50 andconcentrator 55, as described with reference to FIG. 2, are combinedinto the cashless server and data acquisition 100. The cashlessinstrument used on property 104 may be smart cards, magnetic cards,ticket vouchers, combinations of the three or other cashless mediums.

[0084] The cashless server 100 contains a communication interface usedto send information on cashless instruments generated on property 104 tothe clearinghouse server 136 or request information on cashlessinstruments issued at other properties, including property 5 andproperty 118, that are being validated at property 104 from theclearinghouse server 136. The cashless instrument transactioninformation sent to the cashless server 100 from the clearinghouseserver 136 and received by the clearing house server from the cashlessserver 100 is transmitted via the network connection 102. Details ofinformation transmitted between the cashless servers including 10, 100,110 and the clearinghouse server 136 in regards to multi-propertycashless instrument validation are described with reference to FIGS. 4,5, 6 and 7.

[0085] At property 118, gaming machines 112, 113, 114, 115 and 116 areconnected to the cashless server and data acquisition system 110 via thelocal network 111. The local network 111 may be a wireless or wiredconnection system including fiber, copper or wireless cellular,combinations of all three or other connection systems. A separate CVT isnot shown in this embodiment. The functions of the CVT including storageof ticket information may be built into one or more the gaming machinesincluding 112, 113, 114, 115 and 116 or may be built into the cashlessserver 110. The information sent to the cashless server 100 from theclearinghouse server 136 and received by the clearing house server 136from the cashless server 100 is transmitted via the network connection102.

[0086] In one embodiment, the clearinghouse server resides on property138 separate from the other properties, including property 5, property118 and property 104, containing the cashless servers including 10, 100and 100. In other embodiments, the clearinghouse server 136 may resideat the same property as one of the cashless servers. Communicationbetween the clearinghouse server 136 and the two or more cashlessservers, including cashless servers 10, 100, 110, may be performed viathe network connections 120 and the network interface 134 residingwithin the clearinghouse server 134. The connections between thecashless servers and the clearinghouse server 136 including 11, 102, 117and 120, may comprise a dedicated communication network.

[0087] Components of the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseserver 136 may include 1) a memory storage unit for storing cashlessinstrument transaction information in a transaction database 130, 2) afunctional router 132 enabling communication between the clearinghouseserver and different properties, 3) a CPU 131, 4) a memory 133containing software for implementing the clearinghouse functions and 5)the network interface. The transaction database 130 may contain ongoingand past cashless instrument transactions processed using theclearinghouse server 136. The transaction database 130 may beimplemented using Microsoft NT (Microsoft, Redmond, Wash.) and SQL(server query language). The cashless servers, including 10, 100 and110, may also utilize this database technology.

[0088] Cashless instrument transaction information for two or moregaming properties may be stored in the clearinghouse server transactiondatabase 130. The properties may be owned by the same or differententities. The transaction database 130 may be accessed remotely by theproperties, including 5, 104, and 118, utilizing the clearinghouseserver 136. Further, the transaction database 130 may be used withanalysis software to analyze transactions routed through theclearinghouse server 136. An transaction analysis interface is describedwith reference to FIG. 8.

[0089] The transaction database 130 may be partitioned to according toproperties or ownership of properties to limit access to the database130. For example, when property 5, property 104 and property 118 areeach owned by different entities, each property may only analyzecashless instrument transactions relating to cashless instrumentsgenerated and validated at their own property stored at theclearinghouse server 136. Thus, the owners of property 5 may accessinformation relating to cashless instruments generated at property 5 andvalidated at properties 104 and 118 using the clearinghouse server 136and the owners of property 5 may access information relating to cashlessinstruments generated at properties 104 and 118 validated at property 5.However, the owners of property 5 would not be able to accessinformation in the database regarding cashless instruments generated atproperty 118 and validated at property 104. When more than one propertyis owned by a single entity, the single entity may be able to accesscashless instrument transaction information relating to ownership of allof the properties owned by the single entity. For instance, when thesingle entity owns properties 5 and 104, the single entity may accessthe transaction database 130 for transactions relating to cashlessinstruments generated at properties 5 and 104 and validated at any ofthe properties using the clearinghouse server 136. Additionally, thesingle entity may access the transaction database 130 for transactionsrelating to cashless instruments generated at any of the properties andvalidated at properties 5 and 104.

[0090] The router 132 may contain routing information that allows theclearinghouse server 136 to determine where a cashless instrument wasgenerated. The routing information is used when a cashless instrument isvalidated at a property different from the property where it wasgenerated. For example, routing information is needed when a cashlessinstrument is generated at property 5 but the cashless instrument isvalidated at property 104. Each cashless instrument may be generatedwith a unique property identifier stored within the cashless instrument.When a validation request for the cashless instrument is received by theclearinghouse server, a property routing table stored within the routermay be used by the server to determine where the cashless instrument wasgenerated and communication information allowing the clearinghouseserver 136 to communicate with the cashless server where the cashlessinstrument was generated.

[0091] The requirements associated with accounting and reporting of thecashless instrument information are dependent on the regulations withinthe jurisdiction. That being the case, the system is adaptable to thoseparticular regulations. In general, a cashless instrument with an awardamount may be considered to be analogous to a personal check written bythe property where it was generated. When the cashless instrument isvalidated, it is essentially cashed. This implies that the propertywhere the cashless instrument was generated must maintain a database ofdata related to those cashless instruments that were created on itsproperty. This is analogous to maintaining a bank account whose solepurpose is to cover the cashless instruments that were generated at theproperty. This property is usually responsible for maintaining itscashless instrument database and validating cashless instruments. When arequest to validate a cashless instrument is received by the cashlesssystem at a particular gaming property, the property has the option ofvalidating or rejecting the request. Once the property validates thecashless instrument, it is typically the responsibility of that propertyto insure its own cashless instrument transaction database is updated.At that time, the property which generated the cashless instrument, nowmust transfer the funds to the property requesting the validation. Thefund transfers may occur with each transaction or could be compiled in abatch to cover multiple ticket validation transactions on a periodicbasis, eg. once a night. The cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse facilitates all associated electronic fund transfers(EFTs) and acts as a third party between the parties. Details of thesetransactions are described with reference to FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7.

[0092]FIG. 4 is an interaction diagram for a cashless instrumenttransaction between a clearinghouse, cashless servers, and cashlessgenerators/validators where the cashless instrument is generated at adifferent location from where it is validated. In 404, a player payout(e.g. award) is generated on a cashless instrument at a cashlessinstrument generation site 402 at property 100. The cashless instrumentgeneration site may include a gaming machine, a clerk validationterminal, a wireless validation terminal and a cashier station. Thecashless instrument may include a printed ticket voucher (e.g. EZ payticket), a smart card, a debit card and other cashless mediums. In 406,when the cashless instrument is generated, cashless instrumenttransaction information, including 1) a value, 2) an issue date, 3) anissue time, 4) a transaction number unique to the transaction, 5) amachine ID that generated the cashless instrument, 6) an issue locationand 7) an owner, may be transmitted to the cashless server 100. Thecashless instrument transaction information is also stored on thecashless instrument when the cashless instrument is generated in 404. In408, the cashless server may store the cashless instrument transactioninformation in a database. The transaction information stored in thedatabase is used when the cashless instrument is validated. Thevalidation process may be invoked when the cashless instrument isredeemed for cash or when the cashless instrument is used in a gamingmachine or other device that accepts the cashless instrument. Thevalidation process involves comparing the cashless instrumenttransaction information stored on the cashless instrument with thecashless instrument transaction information stored in the cashlessserver database.

[0093] In 410, a game player takes the cashless instrument generated atproperty 100 to property 5. In 412, the game player presents thecashless instrument for a cashless payout at a cashless transactionvalidation site 400 at property 5. The cashless transaction validationsite may include a gaming machine, a cashier station, a clerk validationterminal, a wireless validation device and any other devices whichaccept cashless instruments. For instance, when a debit card is used asthe cashless instrument, the game player may be able to directly depositthe award on the debit card into a bank account accessible to the gameplayer. In 414, a validation request is sent from the cashlesstransaction validation site 400 to the cashless server 10. Thevalidation request may be an information packet containing thetransaction information stored on the cashless instrument in 404 andstored in the cashless server database in 408.

[0094] In 416, the cashless server may check the local cashlessinstrument transaction database on the cashless server to determine ifthe cashless instrument was generated at property 5. The cashless servermay check the local cashless instrument transaction database in a numberof ways to determine whether a transaction record for the cashlessinstrument resides in the database. The database search technique maydepend on what information is stored in the local database and whatinformation is stored on the cashless instrument. When the cashlessinstrument was generated at a property using a different cashless systemthan the property where the cashless instrument is validated, the typeand amount of cashless instrument transaction information stored on thecashless instrument may differ from the type and amount of cashlessinstrument transaction information stored on the local cashlessinstrument transaction instrument database. Thus, the search techniquemay depend on determining a common set of transaction information storedon the cashless instrument being validated and stored in the cashlessinstrument transaction database. For instance, when the cashlessinstrument contains a machine ID and the cashless instrument transactiondatabase stores a list of all of the local machine IDs, the cashlessserver 10 may search the local cashless instrument transaction databaseto determine whether the cashless instrument was generated on one of thelocal machines at the property 5. As another example, when the cashlessinstrument contains transaction information on the property where thecashless instrument was generated or the owner of the cashlessinstrument (e.g. the owner of the property), the cashless server 10 mayquickly determine whether the cashless instrument was generated at thelocal property 5.

[0095] In 418, when the cashless instrument was not generated locally,the cashless server may mark the validation request pending in a localdatabase and send a request for validation to the central clearinghousein 420. The request for validation from the cashless server 10 to thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse 136 may contain all orsome subset of the information stored on the cashless instrument beingvalidated. In addition, the request for validation may containinformation about the cashless transaction validation site. For example,the identification information about the cashless transaction validationsite 400, the property 5 where the cashless transaction validation siteis being validated and the owner of the property may be included in therequest for validation message.

[0096] As in 414, the request for validation in 420 may be aninformation packet of some type sent using a pre-determinedcommunication protocol between the cashless server 10 and the centralclearinghouse 136. The communication protocol used to transmittransaction information between the cashless transaction validation site400 and the cashless server 10 in 414 may be the same or different thanthe communication protocol used to transmit the transaction informationbetween the cashless server 10 and the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse 136 in 420.

[0097] In 422, the cashless instrument transaction clearinghousedetermines the owner of the cashless instrument (e.g. the property wherethe cashless instrument was generated). The clearinghouse 136 determinesthe owner based upon information received in the validation request in420 and based upon information stored in the clearinghouse 136. In 424,using routing information stored within the clearinghouse 136, a requestfor validation is sent from the clearinghouse 136 to the property wherethe cashless instrument was generated (i.e. property 104 in thisembodiment). The request for validation is an information packet in acommunication protocol of some type. The transaction informationcontained within the information packet is sufficient to allow thecashless server 100 at the cashless generation site 402 at property 104to validate the cashless instrument. The communication protocol used totransmit the transaction information between the cashless server 10 andthe clearinghouse 136 in 420 may be the same or different than thecommunication protocol used to transmit the transaction informationbetween the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse 136 and thecashless server 100 in 424. For example, the communication protocols maybe different when the cashless system used at property 5 is differentfrom the cashless system used at property 104.

[0098] In 426, the cashless server 100 checks the local cashlessinstrument transaction database to confirm the request for validationreceived in 424 is valid. When the transaction is valid (e.g. thecashless instrument was generated at property 104 and has not beenpreviously validated), in 431, an approval message may be sent from thecashless server 100 to the clearinghouse 136, in 432, the clearinghousemay forward or generate the approval message to the cashless sever 10,in 434, the cashless server 10 may forward or generate the approvalmessage to the cashless transaction validation site 400. In 428, thecashless server may cover the debit by allocating or transferring fundsto an account used to cover debits. In 430, the cashless server 100 maysend an Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) to cover the debit to theclearinghouse 136. The EFT may be sent after each transfer or may besent as a batch at the end of some time period, e.g. at the end of eachday.

[0099] In 436, the validation site 400 at property 5, performs anappropriate operation when the validation is approved. For example, whenthe validation site 400 is a gaming machine, credits may be posted onthe gaming machine. As another example, when the validation site 400 isa cashier station, the player may receive a cash amount according to thevalue of the cashless instrument.

[0100] One advantage of using a cashless system with EFT is that nothingphysical has to be exchanged between the properties. When a token isissued as a credit of indicia at one property and then used at a secondproperty, the second property may allow the token to be used as creditof indicia at the second property. However, the tokens must be countedat the second property and then shipped back to the first property andcounted so that the second property may receive the amount of moneyassociated with the token. For many properties accepting tokens frommany different properties, the infrastructure associated with thecounting, sorting and shipping of tokens from one property to anothermay be quite large. This type of infrastructure may be reduced oreliminated using the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse withEFT between various properties connected to the clearinghouse.

[0101] Besides cashless instrument validations for payout, in anotherembodiment, the cashless validation processes described above using thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse may be used to runpromotions or complimentary promotions across multiple properties. Forexample, a promotion could be targeted for a specific type of gamingmachine or game theme whereby the player would receive a cashlessinstrument such as a bar coded ticket from the gaming machine duringgame play. This bar coded ticket could be redeemed at any of theparticipating properties linked by the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse. The bar coded ticket may be redeemed for merchandise orgame play credit—whichever is defined as the promotion and printed onthe ticket. Further, the ticket may be generated by the gaming machineto entice the player to redeem the ticket at a specific propertyconnected to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. Asdescribed above, ticket validation is performed at the gaming propertyto verify that the ticket is a valid promotional or complimentaryticket. Rather then being limited to a single property, the cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse manages the promotions across theproperties and maintains a centralized database containing the promotiontheme parameters and the statistics once the game has begun.

[0102] In another embodiment, the cashless validation processesdescribed above using the cashless instrument transaction clearinghousemay be used to run multiple progressive games associated with thegeneration or validation cashless instruments at the gaming machine,each of which is managed and controlled by cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse. These new types of progressive games areassociated with either the redemption/validation of a cashlessinstrument or the generation of a cashless instrument upon cashout. Atthe time a cashless instrument is inserted into a gaming machine forvalidation by the system, an event gets transmitted to the cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse whereby the player validating theticket or other cashless instrument has a chance to win a jackpot. Aplayer may also win a jackpot when a cashless instrument is generated.These jackpot events may be incorporated as part of the cashlessinstrument generation and validation process as described above withreference to FIG. 4 and as described below with reference to FIGS. 5, 6and 7.

[0103] Similar to a lotto game where a sequence of numbers is used tomatch a central sequence of numbers in an attempt to win the lotto grandprize, the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse randomlyselects a sequence of numbers which is compared to the transactionvalidation number stored on the cashless instrument. When these twosequence of numbers match, the player wins the central jackpot and isnotified of the win at the gaming machine or the cashless transactionvalidation site where the cashless instrument is being redeemed.Notification to the player may be made in a number of ways including 1)on the gaming machine's video screen 2) by generating a ticket or othercashless instrument at the gaming machine or other cashless transactionvalidation site indicating the player has won the jackpot.

[0104] The jackpot can be funded in many different ways including, butnot limited to: 1) a small percentage of each ticket is held by cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse, e.g. 5 cents of each ticketinserted or cashed out is paid to the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse for a chance to win the progressive jackpot, 2) eachproperty connected to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghousepays a small amount (cents) into the progressive jackpot each time theplayer cashes out or redeems a ticket. In addition, the player may havethe option at the gaming machine to play for the progressive jackpotupon cashless instrument generation and cashless instrument validation.Thus, the player may chose to commit a small percentage of the cashlessinstrument towards winning the jackpot which funds the jackpot.

[0105] In general, there may be more then one such progressive jackpotmanaged by the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. Withmultiple progressive jackpots managed by the clearinghouse, eachproperty may have a small progressive for matching a few numbers inaddition to a larger progressive across all properties when all numberson the ticket are matched. The multiple progressive jackpots may providemore chances for a player to win a jackpot. In addition progressivejackpots may encourage the use of cashless instruments by the gameplayer which as mentioned above many operational advantages to theproperties using cashless systems.

[0106]FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a method of validating a cashlessinstrument transaction at a cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse. One context of the method of validating the cashlessinstrument transaction at the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse is described with respect to FIG. 4. In 500, a request fora cashless instrument transaction validation is received at theclearinghouse 500 from a cashless server. In 502, using informationreceived in the transaction validation request, the clearinghousedetermines the transaction owner described in the transaction validationrequest. In 504, the clearinghouse may determine the validity of thetransaction. A transaction may be invalid for a number of reasonsincluding 1) the transaction owner is unknown, 2) the transaction ispending and 3) the transaction has previously been validated. In 506,when the transaction is not valid, a transaction validation replycontaining a Non-Acknowledgement (NACK) is sent to the transactionrequester of the transaction validation request. The NACK indicates tothe transaction requester that the transaction can not be validated atthe present time.

[0107] In 508, a validation request for the transaction is sent to thecashless server which is the cashless instrument transaction ownerdetermined in 502. In 510, when a validation reply to the validationrequest is not received by the clearinghouse from the cashlessinstrument transaction owner, in 506, a transaction validation replywith a NACK is sent to the transaction validation requester. In 512,when a validation reply is received from the cashless instrumenttransaction owner, the clearinghouse determines whether the validationtransaction has been approved or rejected by the cashless instrumenttransaction owner. A transaction may be rejected for a number of reasonsincluding 1) the cashless instrument has already been validated (e.g.paid), 2) a record of the cashless instrument can not be found and 3) acashless instrument with transaction information matching the validationrequest is currently pending. In step 506, when a transaction isrejected, a transaction validation reply with a NACK may be sent to thetransaction validation requester.

[0108] In 514, when the transaction has been approved by the cashlessinstrument transaction owner, data associated with the transaction isstored in the clearinghouse database and the transaction is markedpending. While the transaction is pending, the clearinghouse may reject(i.e. 506) validation requests for cashless instruments with transactioninformation identical to the pending transaction validation request.This operation may be implemented to prevent fraud. In 516, atransaction validation reply with information indicating the requestedtransaction has been validated is sent from the clearinghouse totransaction validation requester which may be a cashless server. In 518,when the payment of the transaction by the transaction validationrequester is not acknowledged in a message of some type, a messagecontaining a NACK may be sent to cashless instrument transaction ownerin 520. In 522, when the payment by the transaction validation requesteris acknowledged, the state of the transaction is changed from pending topaid and a message may be sent to the owner of the transactionindicating the transaction has been paid. Transaction information storedby the clearinghouse may be used to insure an EFT is made from cashlessinstrument transaction owner to the cashless instrument transactionvalidator.

[0109]FIG. 6 is a flow chart depicting a method of validating anon-locally owned cashless instrument at a cashless transactionvalidation site local to the cashless server. One context of the methodof validating the non-local cashless instrument transaction at thecashless server is described with respect to FIG. 4. In 600, thecashless server receives a cashless instrument validation request from acashless transaction validation site. In 602, the cashless serverdetermines the owner of the cashless instrument. When the cashlessinstrument is locally owned, e.g., the cashless instrument is beingvalidated at the same property where the cashless instrument wasgenerated, a local transaction validation process is used in step 604.One example of a local transaction validation process with respect to acashless system was described with reference to the EZ pay system inFIG. 1.

[0110] In 606, when the cashless instrument transaction owner isnon-local, the transaction is marked pending in the cashless serverdatabase. In 608, a transaction validation request message containingthe cashless instrument transaction information needed to validate thecashless instrument validation request is generated and sent to thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. In 610, when atransaction validation reply is not received from the clearinghouse, in614, the transaction validation request is removed from the queue ofpending transaction validation requests, a message containing atransaction rejection is generated and the message rejecting thetransaction is sent to the transaction validation site. When atransaction validation reply is received from the clearinghouse, thetransaction validation reply typically will contain informationregarding whether the requested transaction has been approved orrejected. In 612, when the transaction is rejected, in 614, thetransaction validation request is removed from the queue of pendingtransaction validation requests, a message containing a transactionrejection is generated and the message rejecting the transaction is sentto the transaction validation site.

[0111] In 616, when the transaction validation reply approving thetransaction validation request is received by the cashless server fromthe clearinghouse, a transaction approval message may be sent to thecashless transaction validation site that requested the transactionvalidation in 600. When the execution of the transaction is notacknowledged by the cashless transaction validation site, in 624, thecashless server sends a message to the clearinghouse indicating thetransaction has been cancelled and removes the transaction from itsqueue of pending transactions. In 618, the payment may not beacknowledged for a number of reasons including 1) a communicationfailure between the cashless transaction validation site and thecashless server, 2) an equipment failure and 3) an operator of thecashless transaction validation site rejects the transaction for somereason. In 620, when the cashless server has received an acknowledgementmessage from the cashless transaction validation site indicating thecashless instrument transaction has been completed, the state of thetransaction is changed from pending to completed (e.g. paid) andinformation regarding the cashless instrument transaction is stored. In622, an acknowledgement message indicating the transaction has beencompleted may be sent to the clearinghouse.

[0112]FIG. 7 is a flow chart depicting a method of validating a cashlessinstrument at a cashless transaction validation site non-local to thecashless server containing a record of the cashless instrument. Onecontext of the method of validating a cashless instrument at a cashlesstransaction validation site non-local to the cashless server containinga record of the cashless instrument is described with respect to FIG. 4.In 700, the cashless server containing the record of the cashlessinstrument receives a transaction validation request from the cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse. The transaction validation requestfrom the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse is an informationpacket that may contain the information needed for the cashless serverto validate the transaction.

[0113] In 702, using the information contained in the informationpacket, the cashless server determines whether the transaction has beenstored in a database accessible to the cashless server. In 706, when thetransaction does not reside in the local database, a non-acknowledgementmessage indicating the transaction has been rejected is sent to theclearinghouse. In 704, when the transaction resides in the databaseaccessible to the cashless server, the cashless server rejects orapproves the transaction. The cashless server may reject a transactionfor a number of reasons including 1) the transaction has already beenpaid and 2) the transaction has been marked pending. When thetransaction is rejected, a non-acknowledgement message indicating thetransaction has been rejected is sent to the clearinghouse.

[0114] In 708, when the transaction has been approved, the cashlessserver marks the transaction pending in the local database. In 710, thecashless server generates and sends a message to the centralclearinghouse where information contained in the message indicates thetransaction has been approved. In 712, the cashless server determineswhether the payment has been acknowledged. The cashless server mayreceive an acknowledgement of payment via an acknowledgement messagesent by the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. Typically,the cashless server may expect an acknowledgement during a fixed periodof time. In 714, when the payment of the transaction is not acknowledgedby the clearinghouse, the cashless server may remove the pending statusof the transaction and send a message to the clearinghouse indicatingthe transaction is no longer approved.

[0115] In 716, when the transaction is approved, the cashless serverchanges the state of the transaction to paid and stores the transactiondata. In 718, as described with reference to FIG. 4, the cashless servercovers the debit. In 720, the cashless server may send an EFT to coverthe debit, represented by the paid transaction, to the cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse.

[0116]FIG. 8 is a screen shot of a transaction analysis graphical userinterface used to analyze cashless instrument transactions that havebeen processed by a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. Thetransaction analysis graphical user interface (GUI) may providestatistical monitoring for multiple properties connected to the cashlessinstrument central clearinghouse. With transaction analysis GUI, a usermay be able to tract many types of transactions passing through theclearinghouse including 1) transactions relating bar-coded tickets,debit cards and smart cards for cashouts and 2) transactions relating toon-going promotions and compensations (comps) distributed to players.The screen shot is divided into three graphical windows 800, 810 and818. Each window may contain different visual presentations of dataincluding but not limited to 1) tickets generated, 2) tickets redeemed,3) flow of tickets from generation to redemption, 4) length of time aticket is held by a customer, 5) comparison between properties of allticket statistical data, 6) tickets generated over time by machine, and7) tickets redeemed overt time by machine (e.g. gaming machine, cashierstation, etc.)

[0117] In window 800, a breakdown of ticket data for two product lines,including 801 and 802, is plotted for four different properties 804named North, South, East and West. As mentioned above, access to thisinformation may be limited according to ownership of the properties. Inwindow 818, the numerical values of the data for each property that aregraphed in window 800 are displayed as raw data. In window 810, theamount of cashless redemption's for four different gaming machines,including 814, are plotted. The cashless redemption's are broken downaccording to two different product lines 806 and 808. The values ofthese product lines were plotted according to property in window 800.

[0118] The type of data displayed, the format of the data displayed andthe format of the transaction analysis GUT may be easily changed byusing the pull downs menus 812 to alternate between graphical displays.In general, all of the statistical information is displayed as raw data,as two dimensional graphs and as three dimensional contour types ofgraphs representative of ticket transactions or game play. Basicfeatures utilized in the graphical presentation include: titles, X and Yaxes scales, data point plotting, shading, horizontal and vertical gridlines, informational messages and data line differentiation.

[0119] An advantage of providing a multidimensional view of providing amultidimensional view of multiple property ticket, machine and playerrelated data is that it provides a solid foundation for analyticalprocessing through flexible access to the information of interest to anentertainment corporation operating a number of properties. Operatorscan visually analyze data across any dimension, at many levels ofaggregation, with equal functionality and easy access. The graphicaltools provided by the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseprovide views of data in a natural and responsive fashion, which isintended to insulate users from complex database query syntax.

[0120] In the previous figures, methods and apparatus were describedthat enable the validation of cashless instruments at a gaming propertydifferent from where the cashless instrument was generated using acashless instrument transaction clearinghouse. In FIGS. 9-15, methodsand apparatus are described for the clearinghouse that allow 1) atransfer of resources from an account at a first gaming property to anaccount or device at a second gaming property (FIGS. 9, 11, 13A and13B), 2) account information access (FIGS. 9, 11, 13A and 13B), 3)generation of cashless transaction threads comprising a plurality ofrelated cashless transaction (FIGS. 9 and 10), 4) promotions andservices based upon properties of a cashless transaction thread (FIGS.9, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15) and 5) local resource accounts maintained atthe clearinghouse (FIGS. 9, 11, 13A and 13B).

[0121]FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse server 136 connected to a plurality ofcashless sites. In FIG. 9, methods and apparatus for providing 1)promotions based upon the properties of a plurality of cashlesstransactions, 2) accounts, account information, resource access andresources transfers at a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseare described. For illustrative purposes only, as the present inventionis not limited to the architecture shown in FIG. 9, five cashless sitesare shown connected to a clearinghouse server 136.

[0122] The cashless sites 351, 352, 353, 354 and 360 are connected vianetwork infrastructure 350 to the clearinghouse server 136. The networkinfrastructure may include local area networks, such as those locatedwithin a casino and wide area networks used to connect remote gamingproperties to the clearinghouse server. Some examples of possiblenetwork architectures that may be used in the present invention aredescribed with respect to FIGS. 2 and 3. The cashless sites, 351, 352,353, 354 and 360 may be gaming devices, such as gaming machines, thatvalidate or generate cashless instruments as described with respect toFIG. 4. The cashless sites, 351, 352, 354 and 360 may be located one ofmore different gaming properties. For instance, each of the cashlesssites may be located at a different gaming property or as anotherexample, cashless sites 351 and 352, may be located at a first gamingproperty, cashless site, 353 and 354, may be located at a second gamingproperty and cashless site 360 may be located at a third gamingproperty. The gaming properties may have the same or different owners.

[0123] A plurality of cashless transactions may be related byinformation generated during the cashless transactions. A group ofrelated cashless transactions is referred to as a cashless transactionthread. Cashless transaction threads may be generated by theclearinghouse server 136 as it processes various cashless transactions.

[0124] In addition, remote servers and gaming devices that processcashless transactions may communicate cashless transaction informationto the server 136 for incorporation in cashless transaction threadsgenerated by the server. This information may be sent to theclearinghouse even when the clearinghouse is not needed for validationof the cashless transaction. For instance, when a cashless transactionis validated locally, such as for a validation of a cashless instrumentthat is generated and redeemed at the same gaming property (as describedwith respect to FIG. 2), information regarding the cashless transactionmay be sent to the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse server136 for use in generating cashless transaction threads even though theclearinghouse server 136 may not be required to validate the cashlesstransaction. Thus, the cashless instrument transactions comprising thecashless instrument thread may be one of i) cashless instrumenttransactions validated at the clearinghouse 136, ii) cashless instrumenttransactions validated at one or more gaming properties in communicationwith the clearinghouse and iii) combinations thereof.

[0125] Once a cashless instrument thread is generated, the clearinghouseserver 136 may be designed to generate a promotion in response toproperties of the cashless transaction thread matching one or morepromotion theme parameters. For instance, a property of the cashlessinstrument thread, such as 359 and 364, may be a total amount spent ongame play for the cashless instrument transactions comprising thecashless instrument thread and a promotional theme parameter may be athreshold amount spent on game play. Thus, once the total amount spenton game play in the cashless transaction thread exceeds the thresholdamount spent on game play, the clearinghouse may generate a promotion.The promotion may include but is not limited an offer of: i) promotionalcredits for game play, ii) a discount coupon for merchandise and/orservices, iii) a prize (i.e., comp), such as, food, drink, merchandiseor a service, iv) a cash award and v) combinations thereof. Thepromotional credits may be non-cashable credits for game play on agaming machine.

[0126] Next, the generation of cashless transaction threads aredescribed in more detail. A relationship used to generate a cashlesstransaction thread is referred to as cashless thread criteria. One ormore thread criteria may be used to generate a cashless transactionthread. Some examples thread criteria used to relate cashlesstransactions to generate a cashless transaction thread are as follows:a) a property where the cashless instrument transaction is generated, c)a time when the cashless instrument transaction is generated, d) a valueof the cashless instrument transaction, f) a characteristic of a gamingdevice used in the cashless instrument transaction, g) a type of gameplayed on a gaming machine where the gaming machine is used in thecashless instrument transaction, i) an individual user, j) a group ofindividual users, k) a group of properties where the cashless instrumenttransactions are generated, l) a cashless instrument used in thecashless instrument transaction, m) a group of cashless instruments usedin the cashless instrument transaction and n) combinations thereof.

[0127] For illustrative purposes, two cashless transaction threads, 359and 364, are shown in FIG. 9. Further details of cashless transactionthread generation are also described with respect to FIG. 10. Thecashless transaction thread 359 comprises four cashless transactions,355, 356, 357 and 358 performed at cashless sites, 351, 352, 353 and354, respectively. Cashless transaction thread 364 comprises threecashless transactions, 361, 362 and 363 performed at cashless sites 353,354 and 360 respectively.

[0128] A few examples of thread criterion that could be used to relatecashless transactions in threads 359 and 364 are now described. However,the present invention is not limited to these examples. In oneembodiment, the cashless transactions, 351, 352, 353 and 354 in thethread 359 can be related by identification information corresponding toa single user. Thus, when cashless sites, 351, 352, 353 and 354 aregaming machines, a single user may use a cashless instrument toparticipate in game play at each of the gaming machines over time, 351,352, 353 and 354. Therefore, for instance, the user may first play agame at gaming machine 351 where credits are deposited on the gamingmachine and/or redeemed using a cashless instrument where the cashlesstransaction is validated by the clearinghouse 136. Then, the user maysuccessively proceed to gaming machines 352, 353 and 354 and engage inadditional cashless transactions at each of these sites where thecashless transactions are validated by the clearinghouse 136. Thus, thecashless transaction thread may start with a single transaction 355 andthen grow to two, three and four transactions over time as the singleuser continues to play. In general, the properties of cashlesstransaction threads may change over time.

[0129] When the cashless transaction thread is first generated and eachtime a new cashless transaction is added to the thread or the propertiesof the thread change, the clearinghouse server 136 may compare theproperties of the cashless transaction thread 359 against one or morepromotional theme parameters to see if a promotion has been triggered.The promotional theme parameters may change with time and a change inpromotional theme parameters may also trigger a comparison between thecashless thread properties and the promotional theme parameters. Afterthe promotional theme parameters have changed, a comparison may be madeto the thread properties even if a new transaction has not been added tothe thread.

[0130] As an example, after each cashless transaction 355, 356, 357 and358, the properties of the cashless transaction thread 359, such as thetotal amount spent on game play, may change as a function of time asmore cashless transactions are added to the thread. Thus, the server136, may determine the properties of the thread after each cashlesstransaction and compare the properties with the promotional themeparameters, such as the threshold amount spent on game play, todetermine if a promotion may be awarded. In one embodiment, a promotionmay be awarded after a single transaction, such as when the transactionthread 359 comprises only a single cashless transaction 355, if an awardis indicated when a property of the transaction thread after the singlecashless transaction is compared to a promotion theme parameter.

[0131] In specific embodiments, identification information of the singleuser, which is used to relate the cashless transactions, 351, 352, 353and 354, in the cashless transaction thread 359, may be obtained fromthe cashless instrument employed by the user. For instance, the cashlessinstrument, such as a smart card, a debit card, a personal digitalassistant, a cell phone, a printed ticket with encoded information suchas 1-D and 2-D bar-codes, a magnetic striped card, a wireless RFID tagwith read and write capabilities and combinations of these devices(e.g., RFID tag embedded in a magnetic striped card), may be used tostore user identification information that can be read from the cashlessinstrument and associated with the cashless transactions in the cashlesstransaction thread 359. Details of using RFID tags and 1-D/2-D barcodesare described in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No. 10/214,936, filedon Aug. 8, 2002, and entitled, “Flexible Loyalty Points Programs,” whichis incorporated herein in its entirety and for all purposes.

[0132] In another embodiment, the identification information of thesingle user may be obtained from a player tracking account. For example,the user may initiate a player tracking session prior to initiating thecashless transaction 355 and player tracking information may be includedin the cashless transaction information that is used for the cashlesstransaction 355. In another example, the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse may provide individual user accounts that may be accessedby an account number that is stored on a cashless instrument. When thesingle user uses a cashless instrument with their account number for acashless transaction, such as 351, 352, 353 or 354, the account numbercan be used to identify the user from account information stored at theclearinghouse. In yet other embodiment, the single user may be providedwith the option of supplying identification information at the cashlesssite, which may be used to associate the cashless transaction with aparticular user.

[0133] Multiple cashless instruments may be used for the cashlesstransactions in a cashless transaction thread. For instance, in theprevious example, a series of printed tickets with identificationinformation may be used as cashless instruments for the cashlesstransactions, 355-358, in cashless transaction thread 359 where a newprinted ticket is issued after each transaction. In another example, amagnetic striped card may be used to generate cashless transactions 355and 356 and printed tickets may be used for cashless transactions 357and 358 in thread 359. In yet another example, a cashless instrumentwith a 2-D bar-code may be used for a transactions 355 and 356 and acell phone may be used for cashless transactions 357 and 358 in thread359.

[0134] The cashless transactions in a cashless transaction thread arenot necessarily limited to transactions by a single user. For example,the cashless transactions, 361, 362 and 363, in cashless transactionthread 364 may be related according to a time period during which theyoccur. For instance, the cashless transaction thread criteria for thread364 may be all of the cashless transaction that are performed onThursday. Therefore, in this example, three cashless transactions, 361,362 and 363, may be performed by three different users at the cashlesssites 353, 354 and 360 during the time period specified by the cashlessthread criteria and the cashless transactions may be grouped into thecashless transaction thread 364. As described above, based upon theproperties of the cashless transaction thread 364 and promotion themeparameters applied by clearinghouse server 136, a promotion may beawarded to an individual that has used a cashless instrument to performa cashless transaction.

[0135] In the example described, above the use of identificationinformation was used in awarding a promotion to a user. The presentinvention is not so limited. A promotion may be awarded to an individualanonymously without requiring identification information from theindividual.

[0136] The cashless sites, 351, 352, 353, 354 and 360, are not limitedto gaming machines. A cashless instrument validation request may bereceived at the clearinghouse to validate and indicia of credit valuestored on the cashless instrument to enable i) a wager on a table game,ii) a play of a keno game, iii) a play of a bingo game, iv) a wager on asporting event, v) a wager on a game of chance played on a gaming devicelocated in a hotel room, vi) a wager on a game of chance on a gamingmachine, vii) a food purchase, viii) a service purchase, ix) amerchandise purchase, x) an entertainment event purchase, xi) a rentalpurchase and xii) combinations thereof. Thus, the cashless site may be agaming device appropriate to the venue from where the validation requestis being made. In addition, the clearinghouse may store records of thetransactions involving wagers, plays of games of chance, food, service,merchandise, rental and entertainment purchases. When information ismade available to the clearinghouse regarding these transactions, theinformation may be utilized in cashless transaction threads generated atthe clearinghouse.

[0137] When the comparison of the promotion theme parameters and thecashless transaction thread properties indicate that a promotion is tobe awarded, the promotion may be generated at the clearinghouse server136 and transferred to a player. The generation of the promotion at theclearinghouse may comprise one of initiating i) a download ofpromotional credits, ii) an issuance of a comp, iii) an issuance of adiscount coupon, iv) an issuance of a cash award and v) combinationsthereof. The promotional credits may be non-cashable credits.

[0138] The non-cashable credits are an example of restricted promotionalcredits that may be utilized in the present invention. Restrictedpromotional credits are credits that are limited in their use. Forexample, a restricted promotional credit may be limited for only gameplay use. Thus, a player may provide a cashless instrument with a numberof promotional credits at a location where the restricted promotionalcredits may be used to play a game, such as but not limited to a gamingmachine, a table game, a sports book, a bingo parlor and a keno parlor.If the player utilizes a portion of their restricted promotional creditsfor game play and in addition wins at the game they have played, then,at cashout, the player may be issued two cashless instruments, such as atwo tickets. The first ticket may store the remaining restrictedpromotional credits while the second ticket may store a cash valuerepresenting the amount of their winning. The first ticket may be usedfor additional game play only while the first ticket may be redeemed forits cash value. In one embodiment, a single cashless instrument, such asa single ticket, may store both restricted promotional credits and aseparate cash value.

[0139] Restricted promotional credits may be limited in many differentways. For instance, restricted promotional credits may be limited to atime period (e.g., certain times of day, certain a days of the week, aholiday period), a particular game (e.g., table games, sports book,keno, bingo, gaming machines, or a particular type of gaming machine), aparticular location, or a combination of locations. Promotional creditsmay be also unrestricted. In this case, a cashless instrument may beissued storing promotional credits that may be redeemed for cash or forgame play.

[0140] The transfer to the player may include sending information andcommands to a remote gaming device that allows the promotion to begenerated at the remote gaming device and awarded to a player. Forexample, the clearinghouse server 136 may direct a remote gaming device,such as a gaming machine at cashless site 351, to generate a cashlessinstrument, such as printed ticket, that may be redeemed for promotionalcredits on a gaming machine. In particular embodiments, promotionalcredits, comps, discount coupons, and cash awards may be stored on acashless instrument generated at a cashless instrument generation site,such as cashless sites 351, 352, 353, 354 and 360 that are incommunication with the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseserver 136.

[0141] In another embodiment, a promotion may be stored in an account.For instance, promotional credits may be available on an accountaccessible to a particular user. In another yet another embodiment, apromotion may be e-mailed to a user. For instance, an electronic filecontaining a cashless instrument that may be printed out by a user maybe sent to an e-mail address of a user. When the cashless instrument isprinted out, it may be redeemed for a promotion indicated by thecashless instrument. In a further embodiment, when a mail address isavailable, a promotion on a cashless instrument may be mailed to a user.

[0142] The clearinghouse 136 may be capable of receiving cashlessinstrument validation requests for a validation of promotional credits,comps, discount coupons and cash awards stored on cashless instrumentsor stored in user accounts. The promotional credits, the comp, thediscount coupon and the cash awards that may be stored on cashlessinstruments or may be stored in user accounts may be redeemable at aplurality of gaming properties in communication with the clearinghouse136. The cashless instrument with the stored promotion may be issued ata first gaming property and redeemed at a second gaming property.

[0143] In yet another embodiment, the processor may be capable ofregulating access to the promotional credits stored on the firstcashless instrument or stored in the user account. The promotionalcredits may be regulated to limit one or more of more of the following:i) a total amount used over a period of time, ii) a total amount used ata particular gaming property, iii) a total amount used at a group ofgaming properties, iv) a use of the promotional credits on particulartype of gaming machine, v) a use to a particular group of gamingmachines, vi) a use of promotional credits only during certain timeperiods and vii) combinations thereof. The user account used for storingthe promotional credits may be maintained at the clearinghouse, on aremote server in communication with the clearinghouse or combinationsthereof.

[0144] The cashless transaction information and cashless threadinformation, such as thread properties, may be stored in a transactiondatabase 130 at the clearinghouse. The organization of the database isnot limited to structure shown in FIG. 9, which is provided forillustrative purposes only. In the database, an account 371 is shown.The account may be associated with a single user or a group of users.The account 371 is associated with two cashless instruments, 372 and373. In general, a plurality of cashless instrument may be associatedwith the account 371. The cashless instruments, 372 and 373, may beutilized by a single user or multiple users. Therefore, an account 371may be associated with one or more persons.

[0145] In FIG. 9, instrument 372, has been used for cashlesstransactions 361, 362 and 363. These cashless transactions have beenrelated as a cashless thread 363 and associated with the instrument 372.Instrument 373 has been used for cashless transactions 355-358. Thesecashless transactions have been related as a cashless thread 359.Cashless thread information regarding the threads, 359 and 363, isstored in the database 130 under account 371.

[0146] The cashless instruments 372 and 373, may be used to storevarious instrument resources, 374 and 375, such as but not limited topromotional credits, cashable credits, cash, loyalty/player trackingpoints and other promotions. The instrument resources, 374 and 375, maybe tracked by the clearinghouse server 136. The use of the instrumentresources, 374 and 375, may be validated by the clearinghouse server136.

[0147] Account resources 376 may also be associated with the account371. The account resources 376, like the instrument resources 374, maybe promotional credits, cashable credits, cash, loyalty/player trackingpoints and other promotions. The clearinghouse server may also validatethe use of the account resources 376. For instance, the clearinghouseserver may receive requests for account resources from the cashlesssites, 351-354 and 360. When the requested resources are available andthe cashless transaction has been approved, the resources may betransferred to a remote gaming device. Details of resource transfer andvalidation are described in more detail with respect to FIGS. 13A and13B.

[0148] In one embodiment of the present invention, the clearinghouseserver 136 may regulate the use of instrument resources, 374 and 375,stored on a cashless instrument and/or account resources 376 stored inthe account 371 according to various criteria. One example of instrumentor account resources is promotional credits. A few examples ofregulation criteria for instrument or account resources that may beemployed with present invention are: i) a total amount used over aperiod of time, ii) a total amount used at a particular gaming property,iii) a total amount used at a group of gaming properties, iv) a use ofthe resource on only particular type of gaming machine, v) a use only ona particular group of gaming machines, vi) a use of resources onlyduring certain time periods and vii) combinations thereof.

[0149] In addition to validating the use of resources and regulating theuse of resources at accounts maintained at the clearinghouse 136, theclearinghouse may validate and regulate the use of resources maintainedas accounts on remote gaming device in communication with theclearinghouse 136. For instance, the clearinghouse may be used tovalidate the withdrawal of resources from a remote account. Further, theclearinghouse may be used to validate the transfer of resources betweentwo accounts. For instance, the clearinghouse may validate/regulate atransfer of resources from an account maintained at the clearinghouse136 to an account maintained on a remote gaming device. As anotherexample, the clearinghouse may validate/regulate the transfer ofresources between two remote accounts. In yet another example, theclearinghouse may be used to validate/regulate the transfer of resourcesfrom a first cashless instrument to a second cashless instrument. Thevalidation and regulation processes may include the approval orrejection of a requested resource transfer.

[0150]FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing a generation of cashlessinstrument threads in a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseserver. The figure is used to illustrate the generation of cashlessinstrument threads at a cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse byapplying three different combinations of thread criteria 395. Theexamples in FIG. 10 are provided for illustrative purposes only and thepresent invention is not limited to combinations of thread criteriondescribed in the figure.

[0151] In FIG. 10, 13 cashless transactions, 355-358, 361, 363, 380-386,are generated at three gaming properties, A, B, C over a 12 day timeperiod. The cashless transactions generated at property A are enclosedwith a rectangular and include 355, 358, 361 and 363. The cashlesstransactions generated at property B are enclosed in an oval and include356, 361, 363 and 386. The cashless s generated at property C areenclosed in a triangle and include transactions 357, 384 and 385. In oneembodiment, these cashless transaction may be generated by a singleplayer although the present invention is not limited to this scenario.

[0152] Three different groups of thread criterion 395 are used togenerate cashless threads. The first group 396 includes transaction atall properties during time periods, t₁ and t₂. Time period, t₁,comprises a three-day period from Tuesday to Thursday. Time period, t₂,comprises 9 day time period from Thursday to a Friday of the next weekand overlaps time period t₁ by one day. The second group 397 of threadcriterion includes cashless transaction generated at property B at alltimes. The third group 398 of thread criterion include cashlesstransaction generated at properties A and C during time period t₁.

[0153] A cashless thread 390 is initially created for the first group396 of thread criterion when cashless transaction 358 is performedduring time period, t₁. When the thread is created, the properties ofthe cashless thread 390 may be compared against promotion themeparameters selected for the thread 390 to determine if an award has beentriggered. Some examples of thread properties include but are notlimited to i) a total amount spent on game play for the cashlessinstrument transactions comprising the cashless instrument thread, ii) atotal amount spent on food purchases for the cashless instrumenttransactions comprising the cashless instrument thread, iii) a totalamount spent on merchandise purchases for the cashless instrumenttransactions comprising the cashless instrument thread, iv) a totalamount on spent service purchases for the cashless instrumenttransactions comprising the cashless instrument thread, v) a totalamount spent on rental purchases for the cashless instrumenttransactions comprising the cashless instrument thread and vi)combinations thereof. Some examples of promotion theme parameters mayinclude but are not limited to i) a threshold amount spent on game play,ii) a threshold amount spent on food purchases, iii) a threshold amountspent on merchandise purchases, iv) a threshold amount spent on servicepurchases, v) a threshold amount spent on rental purchases, vi) a randomselection of the cashless instrument thread, vii) a time, viii) a gamingproperty location, and ix) combinations thereof.

[0154] After the cashless thread 390 is created, additional cashlesstransactions including 361, 363 and 380-386 are related to thread 390over time using the first group 396 of thread criterion 395. After eachcashless transaction is related to the cashless thread 390 using thecriterion 396, the properties of the cashless thread may be updated andcompared with the promotion theme parameters associated with thecashless thread 390 to determine whether an award has been triggered. Inthis embodiment, the time periods for thread 390 expire before an awardis made based upon the thread properties and the thread 390 is closed. Arecord of the thread may be stored at the cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse.

[0155] A cashless thread 391 is initially created for the second group397 of thread criterion 395 when cashless transaction 356 is generated.After the cashless thread 391 is created, additional cashlesstransactions including 381, 382 and 383 are related to thread 391 overtime using the second group 397 of thread criterion 395. After cashlesstransaction 383, the properties of the thread 391 are compared with thepromotion theme parameters for the thread and an award 396 is indicated.In one embodiment, the thread 391 is closed and no additional awards aremade from the thread 391. In another embodiment, the thread 391 may bekept open and additional awards made by made as the properties of thethread 391 change. For instance, the promotional theme parameters mayprovide for a number of award thresholds that provide for additionalawards as the properties of the cashless thread surpass the awardthresholds, such as a first award after a first amount of game play hasbeen surpassed and a second award after a second amount of game play hasbeen surpassed where the amount of game play is cumulative.

[0156] In yet another embodiment, the cashless transactions used in athread to generate thread properties may expire. For example, oldercashless transactions may be removed from a cashless thread after aperiod of time has expired. Thus, although the cashless thread remainsopen, the properties of the thread may change as the older cashlesstransactions comprising the thread are removed from the thread.

[0157] Returning to FIG. 10, after an award 396 is made for thread 391,the thread 391 is closed. When a new cashless transaction, 386, isgenerated that satisfies the thread criterion 397, a cashless thread 394is created. A subsequent award for this thread may be made when theproperties of the thread 394 satisfy the promotion theme parametersassociated with the thread. The promotion theme parameters associatedwith the thread criterion 395 may change with time. For instance, forthe second group 397 of criterion, the promotion theme parameter may bea first threshold amount spent on game play for cashless thread 391while the promotion theme parameter for the thread 394 may be a secondthreshold amount spent on game play. In another embodiment, the threadcriterion for a cashless thread may change with time. Thus, forinstance, for thread 390 after the time periods, t₁ and t₂, expire,rather than closing the thread 390, a new time period may be specifiedand the thread may remain open.

[0158] A cashless thread 393 is initially created for the third group398 of thread criterion 395 when cashless transaction 358 is generated.As described with respect to FIG. 9, a single cashless transaction maybe included in multiple cashless threads. Thus, in the examples in FIG.10, cashless transaction 358 satisfies the criterion for the first group396 and the second group 398 and its generation spawns two threads, 390and 393. After the cashless thread 393 is created, additional cashlesstransactions including 361, 363 and 380 are related to thread 393 overtime using the third group 398 of thread criterion 395. The thread 393is closed prior to an award being made.

[0159]FIG. 11 is a simplified block diagram of a cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse server 136 connected to cashless systems andother account systems at multiple properties. Two gaming properties, 5and 6, are shown connected to the clearinghouse server 136 via a networkinfrastructure 350. The network infrastructure 350 is connected to alocal area network (LAN) 904 in gaming property 904 and local areanetwork 905 in gaming property 6. Two gaming machines 903 and 909 areconnected to LAN 904 and LAN 905 respectively. Each gaming machineincludes a player tracking unit 270 with card reader 224, a networkinterface 253, a display 234 for displaying at least a game of chance, aprinter 218, a bill validator 230, a master gaming controller 234 and abiometric interface 271.

[0160] The clearinghouse server 136 may be used to approve or reject atransfer of resources stored on a cashless instrument or in an accountto another cashless instrument, a gaming device or another account. Theresources may include any item of value stored on the cashlessinstrument, the gaming device or account. Examples of resources mayinclude but are not limited to an indicia of credit, promotionalcredits, coupons and comps. In addition, the clearinghouse server 136may be used to approve or reject the transfer of information regardingresources stored in an account or on a cashless instrument, such as butnot limited an account status or cashless instrument status or balance.For the purposes of illustrations, a few examples of this aspect of theclearinghouse are described as follows. Further details are providedwith respect to FIGS. 13A and 13B.

[0161] In one embodiment, the clearinghouse may be used to validaterequests for the transfer resources i) stored on a cashless instrumentor a gaming device, such as gaming machines, 903 and 909, to a localaccount, a remote account or a clearinghouse account maintained at thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse (See FIG. 9), ii) storedin a local account, a remote account or a clearinghouse account to agaming device or a cashless instrument or iii) between accounts. Inparticular embodiments, a transfer of a resource that is stored in anaccount or on a cashless instrument that is validated by theclearinghouse server may be used to enable i) a wager on a table game,ii) a play of a keno game, iii) a play of a bingo game, iv) a wager on asporting event, v) a wager on a game of chance played on a gaming devicelocated in a hotel room, vi) a wager on a game of chance on a gamingmachine, vii) a food purchase, viii) a service purchase, ix) amerchandise purchase, x) an entertainment event purchase, xi) a rentalpurchase and xii) combinations thereof.

[0162] One scenario where a validation of a resource transfer requestmay occur is after game play on a gaming machine. During game play, thegaming machine may have awarded credits, promotional credits,comps/prizes, loyalty programs points. A player entitled to theaccumulated credits, promotional credits prizes, loyalty program pointsmay wish to transfer them to an account accessible to the player. Someexamples of accounts which may be accessible to the player include butare not limited a bank account, a credit card account, a debit cardaccount, a casino account, a loyalty program account and a clearinghouseaccount. The player may provide information at the gaming device, suchas a gaming machines, 903 and 909, to verify their identity and verifytheir account access or at a kiosk. For instance, the player may providean account number and user identification information, such as PINnumber, password or biometric information to verify their identityand/or account access. Also, some of this information, such as anaccount number or biometric information, may be stored on a cashlessinstrument utilized by the player. Then, a transfer validation requestmay be sent from the gaming device to the clearinghouse server 136requesting an approval or rejection of the transfer of resources fromthe gaming device to the account.

[0163] Account and user information required by the server 136 may besent in transfer validation request. The server 136 then may send areply that approves the transfer with information needed to complete thetransfer or may send a reply with a rejection of the transfer. Forinstance, the server may supply security information needed to completethe transaction. Details of security methods that may be used with thepresent invention are provided in co-pending U.S. application Ser. No.09/993,163 entitled “AN AWARD TICKET CLEARINGHOUSE”, filed Nov. 16,2001, which is incorporated herein in its entirety and for all purposes.

[0164] The approval of the transfer may enable a peer-to-peer transferof the resource. For instance, the gaming machine 903 or 909 may be ableto communicate with a remote device hosted the target account andperform the transfer transaction. In another embodiment, theclearinghouse server 136 may serve as intermediary in the transaction.First, the resources may be sent from the gaming device to theclearinghouse server 136 and then the clearinghouse server may arrangethe transfer of resources from the server 136 to the target account. Forexample, promotional credits awarded on gaming machine 903 may be firsttransferred to the clearinghouse 136 and then may be transferred to aremote account 900. The router 132 in the clearinghouse server 136 oranother memory device accessible to the server may contain routinginformation that allows the server to contact a gaming device hostingthe target account, such as a gaming device located at a remote gamingproperty.

[0165] In another embodiment, the clearinghouse server 136 may be usedto approve or reject a transfer of resources from a local or remoteaccount to a gaming device or a cashless instrument. For example, aplayer playing the gaming machine 903 may desire to transfer creditsfrom a local account on account server 907 at gaming property 6 togaming machine 903 or from an account at the clearinghouse to the gamingmachine. A validation request to clearinghouse server 136 may be used toapprove or reject this cashless transaction. In the present invention,cashless transactions may include the validation of cashless instrumentsas well as the validation of resource transfers.

[0166] In yet another embodiment, the clearinghouse may be designed orconfigured to accept or reject cashless transactions based upon resourceregulation criterion. The resource may be an instrument resource storedon a cashless instrument or an account resource stored in an account.Access to a resource stored in an account or a cashless instrument maybe regulated according to: i) a total amount of the resource used over aperiod of time, ii) a total amount of the resource used at a particulargaming property, iii) a total amount of the resource used at a group ofgaming properties, and iv) combinations thereof. The clearinghouseserver may or may not distinguish between account and instrumentresources. For instance, a total amount of the resource used over timemay include resources from cashless instrument and accounts, such as atotal cash amount spent from these sources or it may include a totalamount of the resource spent from a regulated account.

[0167] In FIG. 9, it was described that the information used to generatea cashless thread may be obtained from many sources such as a playertracking server. For example, in 903, after a cashless instrument isvalidated by the clearinghouse server 136, a player may begin a gameplay session on gaming machine 903. Prior to beginning the game playsession, a player may also initiate a player tracking session at thegaming machine. In one embodiment, information obtained from the playertracking session, such as but not limited to an amount spent on gameplay and/or identification information for the user may be sent to theclearinghouse server by the gaming machine 903, the player tracking unit270 or the play tracking server 901. This information may be associatedwith the cashless transaction validated by the clearinghouse server 136or a player account maintained by the clearinghouse server. Theinformation may be used to generate cashless threads.

[0168] In one embodiment, after a cashless instrument is validated on agaming machine, such as 903 or 909, the clearinghouse server 136 may beable to contact a player tracking account server, such as 901 or 906, torequest additional information about the player if an approved cashlessinstrument validation request has been in the context of a playertracking session on the gaming machine. In response to the request, theplayer tracking server may send additional information to theclearinghouse such as what portion of credits deposited to a gamingmachine from a cashless instrument were used for game play.

[0169] The clearinghouse server 136 may also be able to communicate withother devices that record transactions made by a player. For instance,the clearinghouse server (or servers) 136 may be able to communicatewith a hotel registration system that contains transaction informationregarding lodging or food purchases made by a player. The clearinghouseserver 136 may initiate contact with the remote device such as a hotelregistration system or the remote device may initiate contact with theclearinghouse server 136.

[0170]FIG. 12 is a flow chart of a method for providing a promotionusing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse for oneembodiment of the present invention. In 500, the transactionclearinghouse receives a request for a transaction validation. Thetransaction validation request may be for a cashless instrumentpreviously generated at a gaming property in communication with theaward clearinghouse. In 525, the award clearinghouse may parse thevalidation request for transactional information that may be used torelate cashless transaction to other cashless transactions stored at theclearinghouse. Examples of transactional information include but are notlimited to a gaming property location, a time and user identificationinformation.

[0171] In 529, the clearinghouse may compare the transactionalinformation with thread criterion. In 531, when none of conditionsdefined by the checked thread criterion are satisfied, the processor maycontinue to process the transaction. In 531, when one or more conditionsof a thread criterion are satisfied, then in 533, the processor maycheck to determine if a cashless thread corresponding to the criterionhas previously been generated. In 535, when a cashless thread satisfyingthe thread criterion does not exist, then the processor may generate acashless transaction thread, generate its initial properties and storethe thread. The storage process may involve generating a file thatpoints to transaction in the transaction database.

[0172] In 533, when a cashless thread that satisfies the criterion hasbeen previously created and is still active, then in 539, the existingcashless thread may be updated with the transaction information from thecashless transaction. The update process may include but is not limitedto generating updating properties for the cashless thread and updating afile that points to transactions stored in the transaction database thatare related by the cashless thread. The file may also be used to storethe cashless thread properties. The updated file may be stored in amemory device used by the server. As described with respect to FIGS. 9and 10, a single cashless transaction may be used in multiple cashlessthreads if thread criterion for the threads overlap. Thus, steps 531,533, 535 and 539 may be repeated multiple times as the processorcompares the transaction information to a plurality of different threadcriterion.

[0173] In 537, the promotion theme parameters for the cashless threadare compared with the thread properties. The thread properties andpromotion theme parameters may vary from thread to thread and as afunction of time. In 541, in one embodiment, when the theme parametersare satisfied, promotion information may be appended to a transactionapproval. The promotion information may be utilized to generate acashless instrument storing the promotion. The promotion may be one ofpromotional credits, normal credits, a comp, a discount coupon,merchandise, a service, a cash award and combinations thereof. Inanother embodiment, when user information is available, the promotioninformation may be transferred to a user account and the player mayreceive a message notifying them of their promotion. The message may besent to a player's e-mail account, mailing address, cell phone or to thegaming device where a cashless transaction is being generated. In yetanother embodiment, the promotion may be credited to a gaming devicewhere the cashless transaction is being carried out. For instance, whena validation is taking place at a cashier station, the cashier stationmay be notified of the promotion and the cashier may be able to issue acashless instrument with the promotion.

[0174] As another example, when the cashless transaction is beingcarried out at a gaming machine, the gaming machine may be directlycredited with promotional or normal credits that a user may use for gameplay. The gaming machine may display a message indicating that theplayer has won the promotional credits. If the player does not wish touse the promotional credits or normal credits, the gaming machine may beable to generate a cashless instrument storing the promotional or normalgame play credits. Using the clearinghouse, the promotional credits ornormal credits may be validated at a plurality of different gamingproperties, only at certain properties or only at certain groups ofproperties.

[0175] In 543, the processor may determine whether the thread is stillvalid, the thread may be no longer valid because an award was made orconditions described in the thread criterion such as a time period mayno longer be valid. In 547, when the thread is no longer valid, in oneembodiment, the thread may be removed. The thread may be removed if anaward was made for the thread but this action is optional. In anotherembodiment, the thread may be marked as inactive. The thread may laterbe activated if the thread criteria are changed for the thread. In 549,the processor may check for additional thread criterion, if additionalthread criteria are present, the method returns to 529. Thus, in somecases, multiple promotions may be triggered by a single cashlesstransaction.

[0176]FIGS. 13A and 13B are flow charts of a method for transferring andregulating resources using the cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse. In 650, a cashless transaction involving one or moreaccounts is received by the clearinghouse. In 652, access authority forthe account is confirmed. The access authority may be checked by theclearinghouse or at a gaming device. For instance, a user may enter aPIN number that grants access to an account at a gaming device. Thegaming device may then send confirmation to the clearinghouse that PINnumber associated with the account is correct. In another embodiment,the PIN number and account information may be sent to the clearinghousewhich then performs the validation. In 653, access to one or moreaccounts may be approved or may be rejected. An access to multipleaccounts may be required when an account to account transfer isrequested.

[0177] In 653, when access to the one or more accounts is approved, theclearinghouse may determine if one the accounts are local accountsmaintained at the clearinghouse. In 655, when the account is a localaccount, the clearinghouse may locate the account record. In 656, theclearinghouse may check whether the request is for information. In 657,when the request is for information, the clearinghouse may parse theaccount record for the requested information. In 662, the clearinghousemay determine whether the requested information is available. In 663,when the information is available, the clearinghouse may generate areply message with the requested information and send the reply to therequestor of the information. When the information is not available, in651, a non-acknowledgement (NACK) message may be generated indicatingthe information is not available.

[0178] In 669, when the account transaction is not an informationrequest, the clearinghouse may check if the transaction is a resourcerequest. When, the transaction is not a resource request, theclearinghouse may send a NACK message indicating the request can't beprocessed. In this example, the clearinghouse handles transactionsinvolving information requests and resource requests, other requestssuch as resource transfers may also be requested. Thus, in general, theclearinghouse may determine what type of transaction is being requestedand if it is not one of the transactions available at the clearinghouseit may be rejected.

[0179] When a resource is requested, in 658, the resource availabilitymay be checked as well as account limits for resource access. Forinstance, the request may be for an amount of cash that is greater thanwhat is stored in the account. In 660, when the resource is notavailable or a resource limit has been exceeded, a NACK message may besent in 651.

[0180] In 664, when the resource is available and account limits orother regulation requirements have not been exceeded, a reply messagemay be generated approving the transaction and the transaction may bemarked pending. The clearinghouse may then wait for the transaction tobe acknowledged. When the transaction is not acknowledged in 665, in 667an incomplete a record of the incomplete transaction may be generatedand stored at the clearinghouse. When the transaction is acknowledged,the transaction may be marked complete, the account may be updated toreflect the transfer of resources and a transaction record may bestored.

[0181] Turning to FIG. 13B, in 654, when the account in the transactionis remote to the clearinghouse, in 668, the clearinghouse may determinethe location of the foreign account. Then, the clearinghouse maygenerate and send a message indicating what is requested (e.g.,information, a transfer of resource to or from the remote account) tothe foreign account owner. Then, the clearinghouse may wait for a replyfrom the foreign account owner. When a reply is not received in 669, aNACK message may be sent to requestor of the transaction rejecting thetransaction.

[0182] When a reply is received, in 670, the reply message is parsed todetermine whether the requested information, resources or type oftransaction is available. When the transaction can't be completed a NACKmay be sent in 651. In 671, the clearinghouse may determine if thetransaction is an information request. When the request is aninformation request, in 672, the clearinghouse may generate and send areply message to the requestor with the requested information. Forinstance, when the requested information was an account balance, thisinformation may be sent in a reply to the requestor.

[0183] When the request is a resource request, in 673, the clearinghousemay check for related transactions. For example, if an identity of auser is associated with the account, the clearinghouse may check forother transaction by the user over some time period. In 674, theclearinghouse may check transaction limits that may be regulated by theclearinghouse. For instance, in one embodiment, a user may have accesslimited to a certain amount of funds over a period of time from one ormore accounts available to the user, such as a limit of $1000 dollarsper day.

[0184] When the transaction limits are exceed in 675, then a NACK may besent in 651 for the transaction and the transaction may not becompleted. When the transaction limits are not exceeded in 675, in 676,a reply message may be generated approving the transaction and a recordof the transaction may be generated with the transaction marked pending.In 677, when the transaction is acknowledge, the clearinghouse may markthe transaction complete, store a transaction record and arrange for anEFT to account for the resource transferred from the foreign account tothe requester. In another embodiment, the clearinghouse may send amessage to the foreign account owner to acknowledge that the resourceshave been transferred and the foreign account owner may update theaccount. In 678, when the transaction is not acknowledged, a NACK to theforeign account owner may be sent to indicate that the transaction wasnot completed.

[0185]FIG. 14 includes a block diagram of the components of a gamingmachine 201 for use with various embodiments of the present invention inwhich the gaming machine is connected to a local area network 215.Components that appear in gaming machine 100 of FIG. 1 are identified bycommon reference numerals. A master gaming controller 205 controls theoperation of the various gaming devices and the game presentation on thegaming machine 201. Using a game code and graphic libraries stored onthe gaming machine 201, the master gaming controller 205 generates agame presentation, which is presented on the displays 234 and 261. Thegame presentation is typically a sequence of frames updated at a rate of75 Hz (75 frames/sec). For instance, for a video slot game, the gamepresentation may include a sequence of frames of slot reels with anumber of symbols in different positions. When the sequence of frames ispresented, the slot reels appear to be spinning to a player playing agame on the gaming machine. The final game presentation frames in thesequence of the game presentation frames are the final position of thereels. Based upon the final position of the reels on the video display234, a player is able to visually determine the outcome of the game.

[0186] Each frame in a sequence of frames in a game presentation istemporarily stored in a video memory located on the master gamingcontroller 205 or alternatively on the video controller 260. The gamingmachine 201 may also include a video card (not shown) with a separatememory and processor for performing graphic functions on the gamingmachine 201. Typically, the video memory includes one or more framebuffers that store frame data that are sent by the video controller 260to the display 234 or the display 261.

[0187] The frame data stored in the frame buffer provide pixel data(image data) specifying the pixels displayed on the display screen. Themaster gaming controller 205, according to the game code, may generateeach frame in one of the frame buffers by updating the graphicalcomponents of the previous frame stored in the buffer. In a similarmanner, the master gaming controller 205 may generate audio componentsthat are output to a speaker 214 using the sound controller 259.

[0188] The video and audio components of a game presentation, as well asthe configuration of the gaming machine during game play, may beaffected by game components stored on a smart card or by gaminginstructions generated by applications executing on the smart card. Gamegraphic components and game sound components may be downloaded frommemory on the smart card via the smart card reader 224. The smart cardreader may be part of a player tracking unit 270 mounted within thegaming machine or may be a separate peripheral device in directcommunication with the master gaming controller on the gaming machine201. For instance, images stored on the smart card, in a graphics formatsuch as MPEG, may include player-specific images. Sounds stored on thesmart card, in a sound format such as MP-3, may include, for example,one or more of a player's favorite songs.

[0189] The graphical and sound oriented game components may beincorporated into a game presentation on the gaming machine 201 andpresented to the player using the displays, 234 and 261 and the speaker214. Game component information from the smart card may be stored in RAMmemory on the master gaming controller 205, may be stored in a smartcard data partition 258 of a hard drive 254, may be store in anonvolatile memory 252 or may be stored in some other memory location onthe gaming machine. The game components used in the game presentationmay be preloaded into the smart card at the time the player receivestheir smart card or may be downloaded to the card from a remote locationwhile the smart card is in use at the gaming machine 201.

[0190] Alternatively, game configuration parameters and denominationselection parameters may be loaded on the smart card at the time thesmart card is issued. The initial parameters on the smart card may beset by the casino or may be defined by the player. During game play, aplayer may insert their smart card into the gaming machine 201 using thesmart card reader 224. After the smart card is inserted into the smartcard reader 224, the smart card reader 224 may transfer gameconfiguration parameters and denomination selection parameters to themaster gaming controller 205 via the main communication board 253. Then,based on the configuration parameters stored on the smart card anddownloaded to the gaming machine, certain game types, such as cardgames, spinning reel games, test games available only on certain gamingmachines, or other specialty game types available on the gaming machine201 may be displayed while other games available on the same gamingmachine may not be displayed. To initiate game play on the gamingmachine, the player may first select from among a number of displayedgames available on the gaming machine.

[0191] While the player is playing one or more games on a particulargaming machine, a smart card inserted into the smart card reader 224 mayregularly communicate with the gaming machine 201. For instance, whilethe smart card is inserted into the smart card reader 224, the smartcard may receive regular updates of game play history information, suchas money accepted into the gaming machine via the bill validator 230 andcoin acceptor 228 or an amount wagered on a particular game, from themaster gaming controller 205 on the gaming machine 201. The game playhistory information sent by the master gaming controller may be used toupdate game play history information stored on the smart card by one ormore gaming applications executed on the smart card, such as the bonusgame application, the voucher application, the paytable application andthe progressive game application.

[0192] A smart card inserted into a smart card reader 224 maycommunicate with a master gaming controller 205 using communicationprotocols unique to smart cards, may use communication protocols commonto gaming machines or combinations of both. For instance, a smart cardmay communicate with the gaming machine 201 using a Slot AccountingSystem (SAS) protocol or a Netplex communication protocol developed byIGT (Reno, Nev.). When a smart card is inserted into a gaming machine201, the smart card may establish communications with the gaming machinein some standard communication protocol used by both the gaming machine201 and the smart card. Then, the smart card may send the gaming machinea list of gaming applications and communication protocols supported bythe smart card which may be used in a game play sequence on the gamingmachine. Further, the gaming machine may send the smart card gamingmachine identification information such as gaming machine serial numberwhich may be used by the smart card to determine what gamingapplications and communication protocols are supported by the gamingmachine.

[0193] The smart card may communicate with other devices other than thegaming machine when inserted into the smart card reader 224. Forexample, via the main communication board 253 on the gaming machine, thesmart card may communicate with one or more game service servers, suchas server 245 and 250, connected to the gaming machine 201 via a LAN215. The game service servers may provide one or more game services suchas an accounting server, a bonus game server, a progressive game server,a player tracking server and a cashless system server. In addition, thesmart card may communicate with devices in communication with the gamingmachine via a wide area network such as the Internet 255.

[0194] By communicating with remote servers connected to a gamingmachine, a smart card may augment the services provided by these remoteservers in a distributed manner. For instance, player tracking servicesare usually only provided to gaming machines connected in a dedicatednetwork to a player tracking server. Using the smart card, a player mayengage in game play sequences on a plurality of gaming machine that arenot connected to the dedicated communication network of a playertracking server and then engage in a game play sequence on a gamingmachine connected to the player tracking server. When the smart card isinserted into a smart card reader on the gaming machine connected to theplayer tracking server, the smart card may contact the player trackingserver and send game play information to the player tracking serverabout game play recorded on the smart card from game play sequences ongaming machines not connected to the player tracking server. The gameplay recorded the smart card may be obtained using player trackinggaming instructions generated by a player tracking gaming applicationexecuted on the smart card. Thus, with the smart card, player trackingservices may be extended to gaming machines not connected to the playertracking server. In a similar manner, using a smart card, other gamingservices provided by a game service server may be extended to gamingmachines not connected to the game service server.

[0195] The smart card may communicate with the gaming machine 201 viacommunication interfaces other than the smart card reader 224. Forinstance, a player may carry a portable wireless communication interfacethat accepts a smart card. Thus, the smart card inserted into theportable wireless communication interface may communicate with thegaming machine 201 using the wireless communication interface 251.

[0196] The functions of the smart card described above may be performedby other gaming devices. For instance, a player may carry a personaldigital assistant (PDA) or a cell phone that executes gamingapplications such as a bonus game application, a voucher application, aprogressive game application and a paytable application. The PDA maycommunicate with the gaming machine via a wireless communicationinterface, such as 251. In the manner described above for the smartcard, gaming applications executing on the PDA may generate gaminginstructions containing information and commands to the gaming machine.The gaming instructions, from the PDA, may be executed by the gamingmachine as part of a game play sequence on the gaming machine. There aremany different types of PDAs from many different manufacturers. Oneexample of a PDA that may be adapted for such use is the Palm VII fromPalm, Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.

[0197] Specific embodiments of the present invention will now bedescribed in which credits for playing a particular game or set of gamesare distributed and used to effect play of the designated game(s). Theseembodiments will be described with reference to a promotional card ordevice with which indicia of credit are associated. It should be notedthat the promotional device may be any of a variety of devices includingany of the instruments and mechanisms described above with reference toFIGS. 1 and 2 by which credit and other types of information may becommunicated to a gaming machine.

[0198] For example, a ticket voucher (e.g., ticket 220 of FIG. 1)printed by or for use with a gaming machine may have a bar code thereonwhich encodes a credit amount and identifies a specific gamingapplication or set of gaming applications for which the credit may beredeemed. Alternatively, the smart card described above could havesimilar game-specific credit information stored directly on the smartcard or have information on the smart card which points to thegame-specific credit information on some remote storage device, e.g.,servers 245 and 250 of FIG. 14. According to specific embodiments inwhich smart cards are used to distribute game-specific credits, theprovider of the credits has the option of disabling certain systemfeatures for play associated with the game-specific credits. That is,for example, it might be desirable to disable player tracking functions(in which a player accrues points for playing games) when thegame-specific credits are redeemed.

[0199] As yet another alternative, the game-specific credit informationmay be magnetically encoded in the magnetic strip of a promotional cardwhich may be read by the gaming machine's card reader. According to aspecific embodiment of the invention, such promotional cards includegraphical elements on the cards which are specific to the game or gamesbeing promoted. These graphical elements may, for example, correspond tothe graphical elements associated with the promoted game and aredesigned to generate interest in the promoted game. More generally, awide variety of mechanisms are envisioned by which game-specific creditsare distributed and used to enable operation of gaming machines.Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to the examplesgiven.

[0200]FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating redemption of game-specificcredits according to a specific embodiment of the present invention. Inthis exemplary embodiment, the player has been provided with apromotional card having a magnetic strip which encodes informationincluding some indicia of credit, e.g., $5, and identifying a specificgame for which the credit may be redeemed. Such a card might beprovided, for example, by a gaming establishment or gaming machinemanufacturer for the purpose of promoting use of a newly deployed gamingmachine. According to some embodiments, the encoded informationassociated with such a promotional card may identify multiple games forwhich the credit may be used. According to other embodiments, theencoded information may also indicate whether the credit for the game(s)identified may be used at a single gaming venue, or multiple venuesassociated with, for example, a chain of casinos associated with aparticular operator.

[0201] Upon insertion of the promotional card into a gaming machine(302), it is determined whether the encoded information corresponds to agaming application associated with the gaming machine and whether anycredit is left (304). If not, the card is returned to the customer andan appropriate message is displayed which indicates that the insertedcard is not valid for this machine (306).

[0202] If, on the other hand, the encoded information on the cardidentifies one or more gaming applications associated with the gamingmachine and there is unused credit (304), the amount of credit indicatedon the card is read (308) and operation of the designated gamingapplication in a manner which corresponds to the credit value is enabled(310). In embodiments where multiple games are associated with thegaming machine, operation of the gaming machine may be restricted onlyto those gaming application identified by the promotional card. Inaddition, the credit value associated with the card may be restricted tobeing used to effect play of the intended game. That is, it will nottypically be redeemable for cash.

[0203] In embodiments in which a smart card (described above) isemployed to implement the invention, the information on the smart cardcould identify both the promoted gaming application and the amount ofthe credit. Alternatively, the smart card could merely indicate that theplayer has a credit, additional information about which may be retrievedfrom a remote storage device. According to such an embodiment, thegaming machine would communicate with the remote storage device asdescribed herein to effect the verification and crediting processdescribed above with reference to FIGS. 4-6 and 14.

[0204] According to some embodiments, the promotional card of thepresent invention may also be user-specific, including informationidentifying one or more persons authorized to redeem the credits. Insuch embodiments, the user may be verified with reference to the user'sinformation on a debit card or a smart card. Alternatively, the usercould be required to enter an authorization code associated with thepromotional card.

[0205] In addition, and as described above, functions typically enabledby use of such a smart card may be disabled for game play associatedwith the redeemed credits. That is, the gaming venue may not desire toprovide free use of a new gaming machine while simultaneously allowingthe player to accrue points in the manner described above.Alternatively, the player tracking services could be altered to trackplay corresponding to the redeemed credits for tracking or otherpurposes.

[0206] While the invention has been particularly shown and describedwith reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that changes in the form and details of thedisclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention. For example, specific embodiments of theinvention have been described with reference to a gaming machine inwhich the various components of an associated gaming application arestored in the gaming machine itself. It will be understood, however,that the present invention may be implemented in distributed gamingenvironments in which the various objects associated with a gamingapplication may be stored in a variety of locations on a local or widearea network (e.g., the gaming machine and a remote gaming server)and/or shared among more than one gaming application.

[0207] It will also be understood that, according to some embodiments,use of the promotional devices embodied by the present invention may berestricted or expanded in a variety of ways. For example and asdescribed above, a promotional device designed according to theinvention may identify more than one game to which its credit may beapplied, e.g., games provided by the same manufacturer. It should alsobe understood that the use of such a promotional device may additionallybe limited to a single gaming establishment property or expanded tomultiple properties in a chain or a particular geographic region.

[0208] According to still other embodiments, the information associatedwith a promotional device designed according to the invention need notbe conveyed to the gaming system by insertion of the promotional deviceinto a gaming machine. For example, information printed on a promotionalticket or card may be manually input into the system by the holder usingany conventional type of user interface, e.g., a keypad or touch screen.Such a device may be useful where, for example, the gaming system is anInternet gaming system in which players participate using, for example,personal computers. In such an embodiment, the holder of the promotionalcard or ticket could input a string of alphanumeric charactersassociated with the card using his keyboard, in response to which aspecific amount would be credited to that player for use in playing aspecific game or set of games, or for use at a particular gaming site orset of gaming sites, in much the same way as described above withreference to FIG. 14.

[0209] In addition, although various advantages, aspects, and objects ofthe present invention have been discussed herein with reference tovarious embodiments, it will be understood that the scope of theinvention should not be limited by reference to such advantages,aspects, and objects. Rather, the scope of the invention should bedetermined with reference to the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cashless instrument transaction clearinghousefor facilitating the use of cashless instruments across separate gamingproperties, each of which generates and validates cashless instruments,the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse comprising: a networkinterface allowing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse tocommunicate with each of the separate gaming properties; and a processorconfigured or designed to (i) receive cashless instrument validationrequests via the network interface from a first property for a cashlessinstrument presented at the first property where the cashless instrumentwas generated at a second property (ii) send information, via thenetwork, to the second property requesting the second property toapprove or reject the cashless instrument validation request, iii)validate a promotion stored on the cashless instrument.
 2. The cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein the cashlessinstrument storing the promotion is redeemable for one of game playcredit, merchandise and combinations thereof.
 3. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein the cashless instrumentstoring the promotion is generated at a gaming machine at the firstproperty and redeemed at the second property.
 4. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein the promotion is offeredaccording to one or more promotion theme parameters.
 5. The cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 4, wherein a firstpromotion theme parameter is game play on a specific type of gamingmachine.
 6. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim4, wherein the cashless instrument storing the promotion is onlyredeemable at a specific property connected to the cashless instrumentclearinghouse.
 7. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse ofclaim 1, further comprising: a database for storing promotion themeparameters and promotion statistics.
 8. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein the processor is furtherdesigned or configured to generate a cashless transaction threadcomprising a plurality of related cashless instrument transactions andprovide the promotion in response to properties of the cashlesstransaction thread matching one or more promotion theme parameters. 9.The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 8, furthercomprising a transaction database including cashless transaction threadinformation.
 10. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse ofclaim 8, wherein the plurality cashless instrument transactionscomprising the cashless transaction thread are related by one or more ofthe following a) a property where the cashless instrument transaction isgenerated, c) a time when the cashless instrument transaction isgenerated, d) a value of the cashless instrument transaction, f) acharacteristic of a gaming device used in the cashless instrumenttransaction, g) a type of game played on a gaming machine used in thecashless instrument transaction, i) an individual user, j) a group ofindividual users, k) a group of properties where the cashless instrumenttransactions are generated, l) a cashless instrument used in thecashless instrument transaction, m) a group of cashless instruments usedin the cashless instrument transaction and n) combinations thereof. 11.The cashless instrument clearinghouse of claim 8, wherein the cashlessinstrument transactions comprising the cashless instrument thread areone of i) cashless instrument transactions validated at theclearinghouse, ii) cashless instrument transactions validated at one ormore gaming properties in communication with the clearinghouse and iii)combinations thereof.
 12. The cashless instrument clearinghouse of claim8, wherein the properties of the cashless instrument thread are one ormore of i) a total amount spent on game play for the cashless instrumenttransactions comprising the cashless instrument thread, ii) a totalamount spent on food purchases for the cashless instrument transactionscomprising the cashless instrument thread, iii) a total amount spent onmerchandise purchases for the cashless instrument transactionscomprising the cashless instrument thread, iv) a total amount spent onservice purchases for the cashless instrument transactions comprisingthe cashless instrument thread, v) a total amount spent on rentalpurchases for the cashless instrument transactions comprising thecashless instrument thread and vi) combinations thereof.
 13. Thecashless instrument clearinghouse of claim 8, wherein the promotiontheme parameters are one or more of i) a threshold amount spent on gameplay, ii) a threshold amount spent on food purchases, iii) a thresholdamount spent on merchandise purchases, iv) a threshold amount spent onservice purchases, v) a threshold amount spent on rental purchases, vi)a random selection of the cashless instrument thread, vii) a time, viii)a gaming property location, and ix) combinations thereof.
 14. Thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 8, whereingenerating the promotion at the clearinghouse comprises one ofinitiating i) a download of promotional credits, ii) an issuance of acomp, iii) an issuance of a discount coupon, iv) an issuance of a cashaward and v) combinations thereof.
 15. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 14, wherein the promotional creditsare non-cashable credits.
 16. The cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse of claim 14, wherein one of the promotional credits, thecomp, the discount coupon, the cash award and combinations thereof arestored on a first cashless instrument generated at a cashless instrumentgeneration site in communication with the cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse or stored in a user account.
 17. The cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 16, wherein thepromotional credits, the comp, the discount coupon, the cash award andcombinations thereof stored on the first cashless instrument or storedin the user account are redeemable at a plurality of gaming properties.18. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 16,wherein clearinghouse is capable of receiving cashless instrumentvalidation requests for a validation of the promotional credits, thecomp, the discount coupon, the cash award and combinations thereofstored on the first cashless instrument or stored in the user account.19. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 16,wherein the processor is capable of regulating access to the promotionalcredits stored on the first cashless instrument or stored in the useraccount.
 20. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim19, wherein access to the promotional credits is regulated to limit oneor more of more of the following: i) a total amount used over a periodof time, ii) a total amount used at a particular gaming property, iii) atotal amount used at a group of gaming properties, iv) a use of thepromotional credits on particular type of gaming machine, v) a use to aparticular group of gaming machines, vi) a use of promotional creditsonly during certain time periods and vii) combinations thereof.
 21. Thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 16, wherein theuser account is maintained at the clearinghouse.
 22. The cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 16, wherein the useraccount is maintained on a remote server in communication with theclearinghouse.
 23. The cashless instrument clearinghouse of claim 1,wherein the received cashless instrument validation request is forvalidating an indicia of credit value to enable i) a wager on a tablegame, ii) a play of a keno game, iii) a play of a bingo game, iv) awager on a sporting event, v) a wager on a game of chance played on agaming device located in a hotel room, vi) a wager on a game of chanceon a gaming machine, vii) a food purchase, viii) a service purchase, ix)a merchandise purchase, x) an entertainment event purchase, xi) a rentalpurchase and xii) combinations thereof.
 24. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein the cashless instrument isselected from the group consisting of a smart cart card, a debit card, abar-coded ticket, a magnetic striped card, a cell phone, a radiofrequency identification device, an EZ pay ticket voucher andcombinations therof.
 25. A cashless instrument transaction clearinghousefor facilitating the use of cashless instruments across separate gamingproperties, each of which generates and validates cashless instruments,the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse comprising: a networkinterface allowing the cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse tocommunicate with each of the separate gaming properties; and a processorconfigured or designed to (i) receive cashless instrument validationrequests via the network interface from a first property for a cashlessinstrument presented at the first property where the cashless instrumentwas generated at a second property (ii) send information, via thenetwork, to the second property requesting the second property toapprove or reject the cashless instrument validation request, iii)transfer an instrument resource stored on a cashless instrument to anuser account accessible to a game player.
 26. The cashless instrumentclearinghouse of claim 25, wherein the processor is further configuredor designed to provide account information stored in one or moredifferent types of user accounts.
 27. The cashless instrumentclearinghouse of claim 26, wherein the one or more different types ofuser accounts are selected from the group consisting a bank account, acredit card account, a debit card account, a clearinghouse account, acasino account and a loyalty program account.
 28. The cashlessinstrument clearinghouse of claim 26, wherein the account informationfor the one or more different types of user accounts is stored at i) theclearinghouse, ii) one more gaming properties, and iii) combinationsthereof.
 29. The cashless instrument clearinghouse of claim 24, whereinthe processor communicates via the network interface with a plurality ofremote devices each of the remote devices maintaining one or moredifferent types of user accounts.
 30. The cashless instrumentclearinghouse of claim 24, further comprising: an account database forstoring account information in the user account for a plurality ofdifferent game players.
 31. The cashless instrument clearinghouse ofclaim 30, wherein the account information comprises i) an account numberand ii) user identification information.
 32. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 24, further comprising a router. 33.The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 32, whereinthe router contains routing information allowing the processor todetermine a gaming property location for the user account accessible tothe game player.
 34. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseof claim 32, wherein the router contains routing information allowingthe processor to send information to the gaming property location forthe user account accessible to the game player.
 35. The cashlessinstrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 25, wherein the processoris further designed or configured to enable the transfer of a resourcestored on one of a first user account on a first server accessible tothe game player, a first gaming device or a first cashless instrument toone of a second gaming device, a second user account on a second serveraccessible to the game player or a second cashless instrument.
 36. Thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 35, wherein theresource is one of an indicia of credit or points used in a loyaltyprogram.
 37. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim35, wherein the first server or the second server is located at theclearinghouse.
 38. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse ofclaim 35, wherein the first gaming device or the second gaming device isa gaming machine.
 39. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouseof claim 35, wherein the processor is further designed or configured toregulate access to the resource.
 40. The cashless instrument transactionclearinghouse of claim 39, wherein access to the resource is regulatedto limit one or more of more of the following: i) a total amount of theresource used over a period of time, ii) a total amount of the resourceused at a particular gaming property, iii) a total amount of theresource used at a group of gaming properties, and iv) combinationsthereof.
 41. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim35, wherein the first user account or the second user account accessibleto the game player is one of a bank account, a loyalty program account,a credit card account, a debit card account, a clearinghouse account anda casino account.
 42. The cashless instrument clearinghouse of claim 1,wherein the received cashless instrument validation request is forvalidating an indicia of credit value to enable i) a wager on a tablegame, ii) a play of a keno game, iii) a play of a bingo game, iv) awager on a sporting event, v) a wager on a game of chance played on agaming device located in a hotel room, vi) a wager on a game of chanceon a gaming machine, vii) a food purchase, viii) a service purchase, ix)a merchandise purchase, x) an entertainment event purchase, xi) a rentalpurchase and xii) combinations thereof.
 43. The cashless instrumenttransaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein the cashless instrument isselected from the group consisting of a smart cart card, a debit card, abar-coded ticket, a magnetic striped card and an EZ pay ticket voucher.44. A method of validating a cashless instrument storing a promotion ata first property using a cashless instrument transaction clearinghousewhere the cashless instrument was generated at a second property, themethod comprising, receiving a first transaction validation requestcontaining transaction information from the first property wherein thefirst transaction validation request requests validation of the cashlessinstrument storing the promotion; sending a second transactionvalidation request to the second property; receiving a first transactionvalidation reply from the second property; and sending a secondtransaction validation reply to the first property wherein the secondtransaction validation reply contains transaction information indicatingthe validation of cashless instrument storing the promotion has beenapproved or has been rejected.
 45. The method of claim 44, wherein whenvalidation of the cashless instrument storing the promotion is approved,the cashless instrument is redeemable for one of promotional credits, acomp, a discount coupon, merchandise and combinations thereof.
 46. Themethod of claim 45, wherein the promotional credits are non-cashablecredits.
 47. The method of claim 44, wherein the cashless instrumentstoring the promotion is only redeemable at a specific property.
 48. Thecashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim 1, wherein thecashless instrument is selected from the group consisting of a smartcart card, a debit card, a bar-coded ticket, a magnetic striped card, acell phone, a radio frequency identification device and an EZ pay ticketvoucher.
 49. The cashless instrument transaction clearinghouse of claim4, wherein the promotions are comprised of restricted credits ornon-restricted credits.